Word.ws English Dictionary

carcel

carcel noun: a former unit to measure the intensity of light, approximately 9.74 candelas.

Noun

carcel (plural carcels)

  1. (historical) A former unit to measure the intensity of light, approximately 9.74 candelas.
    • Desroziers in a series of experiments obtained as much as 250 carcel spherical luminous value per horse-power; this characteristic is one likely to be of great value in electric lighting by incandescence of high intensity.1885, Various, Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885
    • When experimenting in Paris with a No. 3 lamp in a vertical direction, it showed a consumption of 34.6 liters (1.2 cubic feet) per carcel obtained.1888, Various, Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888

Proper noun capitalized: Carcel

Carcel

  1. A surname

Forms of carcel

pluralcarcels

Origin of carcel

Named after the inventor of the Carcel lamp.

Words formed from carcel

Phrases with carcel

Questions about carcel

What does carcel mean?
Carcel means a former unit to measure the intensity of light, approximately 9.74 candelas.
What part of speech is carcel?
Carcel can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of carcel?
The plural of carcel is carcels.

Words near carcel in the dictionary

  1. carcasslike
  2. Carcassonne
  3. Carcavelhos
  4. Carcavellos
  5. carceag
  6. carcel
  7. Carcel lamp
  8. Carcel lamps
  9. carcels
  10. carceral
  11. carcerality

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carcel (page history and authors); Carcel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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