You searched for: “candles
candle (s) (noun), candles (pl)
1. A molded piece of wax, tallow, or other fatty substance, usually cylindrical in shape, encasing a wick that is burned to provide light: Before the days of gas and electricity, candles were the main sources of light at night.
2. A unit of luminous intensity, defined as a fraction of the luminous intensity of a group of 45 carbon-filament lamps; used from 1909 to 1948 as the international standard.
3. Etymology: from Ole English candel, early church-word borrowing from Latin candela, "a light, a torch"; from candere, "to shine".

Candles were unknown in ancient Greece where oil lamps were used, but they were common from early times among Romans and Etruscans.

This entry is located in the following units: cand-, can-, cend- (page 1) candle- (page 1)