noun
- great brightness; luster: the brilliance of a fine diamond.
- excellence or distinction; conspicuous talent, mental ability, etc.
- splendor, elegance, or magnificence: the brilliance of the court of Louis XIV.
- Optics. that luminance of a body consisting of its saturation and brightness.
noun
- great brightness; radiance
- excellence or distinction in physical or mental ability; exceptional talent
- splendour; magnificencethe brilliance of the royal court
- physics a former term for luminance
1755, from brilliant + -ance. Figurative sense (of wit, intelligence, etc.) is from 1779. Distinguished from brilliancy in that the latter usually is applied to things measurable in degrees.