【Bright】 , 【brilliant】 , 【radiant】 , 【luminous】 , 【lustrous】 ,  【effulgent】 , 【refulgent】 , 【beaming】 , 【lambent】 , 【lucent】 , 【incandescent】 are comparable when they mean actually or seemingly shining or glowing with light.

【Bright】 implies an opposition to dim or dull; it applies chiefly to things that vary in the degree in which they shed light or are pervaded by light, according to circumstances; thus, when used in reference to a fire or burning material (as coals), it suggests a good draft and flames; when used in reference to a day, it implies lack of clouds, fog, smoke, or other obstacles to the passage of sunlight.

【Brilliant】 (see also INTELLIGENT) implies conspicuous or intense brightness; it also often connotes scintillating or flashing light.

【Radiant】 , in contrast with 【bright】 and 【brilliant】 , stresses the emission or seeming emission of rays of light; it suggests, therefore, a property or power possessed by a thing rather than a quality ascribed to it because of its effect on the vision; thus, a celestial body is properly described as 【radiant】 only when it emits rays of light; a planet, no matter how 【bright】  it appears to the eye, is preferably described as 【bright】 or  【brilliant】 because it shines by reflected light.

The term, however, is sometimes used of anything that seems to give out light in the manner of the sun or a star.

【Luminous】 , like 【radiant】 , suggests emission of light, but, unlike it, implies the sending forth of steady suffused glowing light; it is applicable to anything that shines by reflected light or that glows in the dark because of some special quality (as of physical state or chemical activity); thus, all celestial bodies are 【luminous】 , but only self- 【luminous】 bodies (stars in the strict astronomical sense) are also 【radiant】 .

As applied to color or to colored things the term implies more than 【bright】 , for it usually suggests a jewellike quality or iridescence.

As applied to ideas or their expression, the term implies crystallike clearness and the absence of all obscurity.

【Lustrous】 is applied only to an object whose surface reflects light; it therefore seldom implies pervading light but, rather, a 【brilliant】 or iridescent sheen or gloss.

【Effulgent】  and 【refulgent】 indicate resplendent or gleaming brilliance, and the latter implies further that the brilliance is reflected, sometimes from an unseen source.

【Beaming】  literally implies emission of a beam (see beam under RAY).

In its commonest use (as applied to looks or expression) 【beaming】 suggests a display of happiness, satisfaction, or benevolence.

【Lambent】 is applied to a thing (as a flame or a 【luminous】 body) which throws a play of light over an object or surface without rendering it 【brilliant】 or 【lustrous】 .

Often 【lambent】 suggests the emission of soft gleams of light.

【Lucent】 is a highly poetical or literary adjective that approaches 【luminous】 or, less often, 【lustrous】 in its meaning; it is usually applied to something transfigured by light (as from the sun or a fire).

【Incandescent】 suggests intense glowing brightness of or as if of an intensely heated body.