splendor

plural splendors · alternative splendour · alternative splendeur

1. USuncountableusuallyGreat light, luster or brilliance.

   Once upon a time on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental-splendour.

   1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Rhinoceros got its skin”, in Just So Stories

   1 more example

   What tho’ the moon—the white moon Shed all the splendour of her noon, Her smile is chilly—and her beam, In that time of dreariness, will seem (So like you gather in your breath) A portrait taken after death.

   1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems

2. USuncountableusuallyMagnificent appearance, display or grandeur.

   The splendor of the Queen's coronation was without comparison.

   1 more example

   The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

3. USuncountableusuallyGreat fame or glory.