Crossword clues for lightness
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lightness \Light"ness\, n. [From Light not heavy.] The state, condition, or quality, of being light or not heavy; buoyancy; levity; fickleness; nimbleness; delicacy; grace.
Syn: Levity; volatility; instability; inconstancy; unsteadiness; giddiness; flightiness; airiness; gayety; liveliness; agility; nimbleness; sprightliness; briskness; swiftness; ease; facility.
Lightness \Light"ness\, n. [From Light bright.]
Illumination, or degree of illumination; as, the lightness of a room.
--Chaucer.Absence of depth or of duskiness in color; as, the lightness of a tint; lightness of complexion.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"quality of having little weight," late Old English, from light (adj.1) + -ness.
Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. 1 (context uncountable English) the condition of being illuminated 2 (context uncountable English) the relative whiteness or transparency of a colour 3 (context countable English) The product of being illuminated. Etymology 2
n. 1 The state of having little weight, or little force. 2 agility of movement. 3 freedom from worry.
WordNet
n. the property of being comparatively small in weight; "the lightness of balsa wood" [syn: weightlessness] [ant: heaviness]
the gracefulness of a person or animal that is quick and nimble [syn: agility, legerity, lightsomeness, nimbleness]
having a light color [ant: darkness]
the visual effect of illumination on objects or scenes as created in pictures; "he could paint the lightest light and the darkest dark" [syn: light]
Wikipedia
Lightness is a philosophical concept most closely associated with continental philosophy and existentialism, which is used in ontology. The term "lightness" varies in usage but is differentiated from physical weight, such as "the lightness of balsa wood". In other words, "light like a bird," as Paul Valéry wrote, "and not like a feather". Lightness is also considered as a noun.
In colorimetry and color theory, lightness, also known as value or tone, is a representation of variation in the perception of a color or color space's brightness. It is one of the color appearance parameters of any color appearance model. Lightness is a relative term. Lightness means brightness of an area judged relative to the brightness of a similarly illuminated area that appears to be white or highly transmitting. Lightness should not be confused with brightness.
Various color models have an explicit term for this property. The Munsell color model uses the term value, while the HSL color model and Lab color space use the term lightness. The HSV model uses the term value a little differently: a color with a low value is nearly black, but one with a high value is the pure, fully saturated color.
In subtractive color (i.e. paints) value changes can be achieved by adding black or white to the color. However, this also reduces saturation. Chiaroscuro and Tenebrism both take advantage of dramatic contrasts of value to heighten drama in art. Artists may also employ shading, subtle manipulation of value.
Usage examples of "lightness".
Finally he managed to stay on, and the lightness of the McClellan saddle must have pleased the pinto after the heavy Texas saddles, for when he felt the man securely on his back he began to move with a new gracefulness, and for the first time in his life Bufe Coker understood what a horse could be.
All of these, all that man could think of or had thought of long enoughall the madness and the wit, all the buffoonery and the viciousness, all the lightness and the sadness which all men, in all ages, from the cave up to the present moment, had fashioned in their minds were in this very place.
So too thought Emma, for there had come a lightness on her life, and she sang whilst about her work, except when in the cow byre or the yard.
Eve Arnold is quoted as saying Capa had charm and grace and a lightness, that when he came into a room it was as if a light had been turned on.
The Chickadee was staring into the sky, cocking its black-capped head toward the house, peering toward the nearest tree, and spinning with amazing lightness to seize a robin that only wanted to find a worm for its own breakfast.
As to the ordinary and commonplace explanation, it may be added, that the wisdom of the Architect is displayed in combining, as only a skillful Architect can do, and as God has done everywhere,--for example, in the tree, the human frame, the egg, the cells of the honeycomb--strength, with grace, beauty, symmetry, proportion, lightness, ornamentation.
And here I must note a circumstance which my readers may scarcely believe, but which, for all that, is quite true-namely, that I have always preferred virtue to vice, and that when I sinned I did so out of mere lightness of heart, for which, no doubt, I shall be blamed by many persons.
She smiled and nodded at Mazian, but not at Edger, and walked out with a deliberate lightness.
I saw that fine figure coming forward with measured steps, and when the dancer had arrived in front of the stage, he raised slowly his rounded arms, stretched them gracefully backward and forward, moved his feet with precision and lightness, took a few small steps, made some battements and pirouettes, and disappeared like a butterfly.
Now Juba carried her own sleeping-mat balanced upon her head, and despite her great and abundant flesh, she moved with an extraordinary lightness and grace, her back straight and her head on high.
It gave the spear a pleasant lightness as I weighed it in my hand, feeling for its balance, and Larid and Fayan too were pleased.
Certainly, associating Sabina with lightness and Tereza with weight seems reasonable enough in a general way, but beneath the surface Kundera challenges the opposition-based view of women as dominated by either one or the other oppositional extreme.
There is more of lightness, and of a cobwebby dusty humour in Hepzibah Pyncheon, the decayed lady shopkeeper, than Hawthorne commonly cares to display.
We reached the head of the cave, and gazed at each other in the glorious glow, and laughed aloud--even Job laughed, and he had not laughed for a week--in the lightness of our hearts and the divine intoxication of our brains.
But the reader who does not detect the seriousness under the lightness misreads Herrick.