SPLENDOUR

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand

Example:

advertisers capitalize on the grandness and elegance it brings to their products

Synonyms:

brilliance; grandeur; grandness; magnificence; splendor; splendour

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("splendour" is a kind of...):

elegance (a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "splendour"):

eclat (brilliant or conspicuous success or effect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A quality that outshines the usual

Synonyms:

brilliancy; luster; lustre; splendor; splendour

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("splendour" is a kind of...):

brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)

Credits

Context examples:

It was not with Mrs. Suckling, it was not with Mrs. Bragge, but in felicity and splendour it fell short only of them: it was with a cousin of Mrs. Bragge, an acquaintance of Mrs. Suckling, a lady known at Maple Grove.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It was Fanny's first ball, though without the preparation or splendour of many a young lady's first ball, being the thought only of the afternoon, built on the late acquisition of a violin player in the servants' hall, and the possibility of raising five couple with the help of Mrs. Grant and a new intimate friend of Mr. Bertram's just arrived on a visit.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

As they drew near the end of their journey, her impatience for a sight of the abbey—for some time suspended by his conversation on subjects very different—returned in full force, and every bend in the road was expected with solemn awe to afford a glimpse of its massy walls of grey stone, rising amidst a grove of ancient oaks, with the last beams of the sun playing in beautiful splendour on its high Gothic windows.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

My father had risen to depart, but the admiral, with that kindliness which he ever showed to the young, and which had been momentarily chilled by the unfortunate splendour of my clothes, still paced up and down in front of us, shooting out crisp little sentences of exhortation and advice.