Spanish Word of the Day: Luz (light)

If you want to talk about light in Spanish, in the sense of the natural agent that makes things visible to the eye, you can use the word luz.

Luz is a feminine noun that takes the following definite and indefinite articles:

• la luz (the light)
• las luces (the lights)
• una luz (a light)
• unas luces (some lights)

Just as in English, it can be used to refer to the agent itself (as in the first example below) or the source of illumination (as in the second example).

What’s more, it can even refer to electricity itself, as you can see from terms and expressions such as taco de la luz (fuse box), irse la luz (to be a power outage) and cortar la luz a alguien (to cut off someone’s electricity).

To turn the light on can be translated as dar la luz or encender la luz in European Spanish, or prender la luz in Latin American Spanish. To turn off the light is apagar la luz no matter which variation of Spanish you speak.

The word luz often appears in expressions where special attention is drawn to someone or something, either in a literal or metaphorical sense, or when something is revealed. Interestingly, many of the English equivalents also contain the word light.

• sacar a la luz = to bring to light
• arrojar algo de luz = to shed some light on
• salir a la luz = to come to light
• dar a luz = to give birth

Below are a few useful terms that contain the word luz:

Useful idiomatic expressions featuring ‘luz’