Verb

Infinitive to light

Third person singular lights

Simple past lit or lighted

Past participle [[lit or lighted]]

Present participle lighting

to light (third-person singular simple present lights, present participle lighting, simple past and past participle lit or lighted)

1. (transitive) To start (a fire).
2. (transitive) To illuminate.

Synonyms

• (start (a fire)):: ignite, kindle, conflagrate
• (illuminate):: illuminate, light up

Antonyms

• (start (a fire)):: extinguish, put out, quench

Derived terms

• light someone's fire
• light up
• highlight

Light is electromagnetic radiation, particularly radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human eye (about 400–700 nm, or perhaps 380–750 nm). In physics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.

Four primary properties of light are:

• Intensity
• Frequency or wavelength
• Polarization
• Phase

Light, which exists in tiny "packets" called photons, exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics.

Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye (visible light) or, in a technical or scientific context, the word is sometimes used to mean electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths. The elementary particle that defines light is the photon.

The sensory perception of light plays a central role in Spirituality, and the presence of light as opposed to its absence (darkness) is a common Western metaphor of good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, and similar concepts.

Sourced

• And God said: "Let there be light," and there was light.
  • Genesis 1:3

• God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass.The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light, God guideth unto His light whome he will. And God speaketh to mankind in allegories, for God is knower of all things.
  • Quran 24:35

• Hail, holy light! offspring of heaven first-born.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost, III. 1.

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sat Feb 6 14:52:37 2010