luminescence
/ˌluː.məˈnɛs.əns/
"luminescence" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“luminescence” is uncommon English (frequency #52,470 among 16,425 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,470
- frequency rank, English
- 16,425
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any emission of light that cannot be attributed merely to the temperature of the emitting body.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | luminescence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌluː.məˈnɛs.əns/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #52,470 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “luminescence” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
luminescence is uncommon English at frequency #52,470 among 16,425 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌluː.məˈnɛs.əns/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any emission of light that cannot be attributed merely to the temperature of the emitting body.".
luminescence doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin lumen + -escence. The correct English form is luminescence, spelled L-U-M-I-N-E-S-C-E-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1Any emission of light that cannot be attributed merely to the temperature of the emitting body.
Etymology
From Latin lumen + -escence.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "luminescence"?
What does "luminescence" mean?
How do you pronounce "luminescence"?
What is the origin of the word "luminescence"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “luminescence”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-U-M-I-N-E-S-C-E-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌluː.məˈnɛs.əns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.