Meanings
plural lamplights
- countableuncountableThe light emitted by a lamp.
We sat around reading by lamplight all night.
2 more examples
I turned my head, and as I lay gasping in the throes of that awful struggle I could see that Leo was off the rock now, for the lamplight fell full upon him.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLCThe dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.
2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
Origin
- Middle Englishlampe lyght
- Englishlamplight
From Middle English lampe lyght, laumpe-lyth, lombe-lyȝt, equivalent to lamp + light. Compare West Frisian lampeljocht (“lamplight”), Dutch lamplicht (“lamplight”), German Lampenlicht (“lamplight”), Danish lampelys (“lamplight”), Swedish lampljus (“lamplight”), Icelandic lampaljós (“lamplight”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian изкуствено осветление
- изкуствено осветление (izkustveno osvetlenie)the light emitted by a lamp
Chinese Mandarin 燈光 /灯光
- 燈光 /灯光 (dēngguāng)the light emitted by a lamp
Finnish lampunvalo
- lampunvalothe light emitted by a lamp
Hungarian lámpafény, lámpavilág
- lámpafénythe light emitted by a lamp
- lámpavilágthe light emitted by a lamp
Irish solas lampa
- solas lampathe light emitted by a lamp
Russian свет ла́мпы
- свет ла́мпы (svet lámpy)the light emitted by a lamp
Cite this entry
lamplight. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lamplight
“lamplight.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lamplight. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lamplight,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lamplight.
Source: lamplight on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.