Definition of "chemiluminescence" [chemiluminescence]

• Emission of light as a result of a chemical reaction at environmental temperatures. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Another important method to investigate such reaction details is infrared chemiluminescence, introduced by Polanyi."
• "Inside were licorice witches, chocolate fraidy cats, a light stick—chemiluminescence, a word Lindsay loved to say—and seed packets for plants that liked to grow in the dark, along with a brochure on planning a night-blooming garden."
• "Splotchy areas light up an electric blue and dance like popping sparks, and the shutter clicks and clicks and Scarpetta sprays, and the blueness pulses rapidly, fading in and out much more quickly than is typical of blood and most other substances that react to chemiluminescence."