Word.ws English Dictionary

more heat than light

more heat than light noun: more passion or conflict than enlightenment or illumination on a subject.

Noun

more heat than light (uncountable)

  1. More passion or conflict than enlightenment or illumination on a subject.
    • Since I instigated the Manhattan Review (STH) ad which ran in GCN, which is now generating so much heat but very little light, I feel I must make some points clear.1979 April 14, David M. Stryker, “A Contribution”, in Gay Community News, page 4
    • So, in any overall account of the social sciences, disputes are liable to break out about what is, or is not, truly scientific research; and, too often, these disputes generate more heat than light.1996, Stephen Edelston Toulmin, Björn Gustavsen, Beyond Theory: Changing Organizations Through Participation, page 1

Questions about more heat than light

What does more heat than light mean?
More heat than light means more passion or conflict than enlightenment or illumination on a subject.
What part of speech is more heat than light?
More heat than light is a noun.

Words near more heat than light in the dictionary

  1. more dead than alive
  2. more dollars than sense
  3. more equal
  4. more grease to your elbow
  5. more haste, less speed
  6. more heat than light
  7. more honored in the breach
  8. more important fish to fry
  9. more is more
  10. more kicks than ha'pence
  11. more life in a tramp's vest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: more heat than light (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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