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lightness

UK/ˈlaɪtnəs/US/ˈlaɪtnəs/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,325 of 15,258neutral

Lightness is the state of weighing little, or of being cheerful. The lightness of the frame, a lightness of touch, lightness of heart.

A lightness of touch is the phrase for skill that does not show the effort, and it is the highest praise for a writer or a cook. The word covers both meanings of light, which English keeps in one form.

Definitions of lightness

  1. 1nounlightnessThe state of weighing little, or of being cheerful.B2+

    “Hikers love this tent for its lightness and its strength.”

lightness is a quality.

Where it comes from

Old English lihtnes comes from leoht, meaning both not heavy and bright.

  1. Proto-West Germanic

    *liuhtinassī

  2. Old English

    līhtnes

  3. Middle English

    lightnes

  4. English, today

    lightness

Built from

  • lȳhtnys · Old English — enlightening, illumination

From Middle English lightnes, lightnesse, from Old English līhtnes, lȳhtnys (“enlightening, illumination”), from Proto-West Germanic liuhtinassī; equivalent to light + -ness. Cognate with Old High German liuhtnissi (“illumination, enlightening”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

lightness in the wild

  • HSL stands for hue, saturation, and lightness, and is often also called HLS.

    HSL and HSV

  • While luminance is a linear measurement of light, lightness is a linear prediction of the human perception of that light.

    Lightness

  • Doubling the quantity of light does not result in a doubling in perceived lightness, only a modest increase.

    Lightness

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • light
  • lighten
  • lighter
  • lighting
  • twilight
  • enlighten
  • enlightenment