• enPR: brīt, IPA: /bɹaɪt/

bright (comparative brighter, superlative brightest)

1. Visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, clear, radiant; not dark.

   Could you please dim the light? It's far too bright.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0045 ↗:

     Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

   • The earth was dark, but the heavens were bright.

   • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 10, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:

   • The sun was bright o'erhead.

2. Having a clear, quick intellect; intelligent.

   He's very bright. He was able to solve the problem without my help.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 16]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630 ↗; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483 ↗:

     —Ah, God, Corley replied, sure I couldn't teach in a school, man. I was never one of your bright ones, he added with a half laugh.

3. Vivid, colourful, brilliant.

   The orange and blue walls of the sitting room were much brighter than the dull grey walls of the kitchen.

   • 1709, Alexander Pope, Pastorals, Spring:

     Here the bright crocus and blue violet grew.

4. Happy, in good spirits.

   I woke up today feeling so bright that I decided to have a little dance.

5. Sparkling with wit; lively; vivacious; cheerful.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Be bright and jovial among your guests.

6. Illustrious; glorious.

   • the brightest annals of a female reign

7. Clear; transparent.

   • From the brightest wines / He'd turn abhorrent.

8. (archaic) Manifest to the mind, as light is to the eyes; clear; evident; plain.

   • with brighter evidence, and with surer success

• See also Thesaurus:intelligent

• French: brillant, luisant, clair
• German: hell, glänzend, strahlend
• Italian: brillante, luminoso, lucente
• Portuguese: claro, brilhante, luminoso, radiante
• Russian: я́ркий
• Spanish: claro, brillante, resplandeciente, luminoso, lucio

• French: intelligent, brillant
• German: intelligent, brilliant
• Italian: brillante, intelligente
• Portuguese: brilhante, inteligente
• Russian: у́мный
• Spanish: brillante, inteligente, genial

• French: vivide, brillant
• German: lebhaft
• Italian: brillante, allegro
• Portuguese: vívido, alegre
• Russian: я́ркий
• Spanish: expresivo, vívido, vivo

• French: heureux
• German: heiter
• Italian: allegro, felice
• Portuguese: radiante, alegre
• Spanish: alegre

bright (plural brights)

1. An artist's brush used in oil and acrylic painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.
2. (obsolete) splendour; brightness
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 3”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear.

3. (neologism) A person with a naturalistic worldview with no supernatural or mystical elements.
4. (US, in the plural) The high-beam intensity of motor vehicle headlamps.

   Your brights are on.

• (non-supernaturalist) (neologism) super, supernaturalist

1. Surname