heliophilia means the property of an organism being attracted to sunlight or thriving in sunlight. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “heliophilia” is a great word
Heliophilia is a fondness for sunlight, a desire to thrive in its specific warmth and illumination. The word, coined in the late 19th century, is built from the Greek hēlios ("sun") and philia ("fondness, love"). Unlike photophilia, which denotes a generic attraction to any light, or heliotropism, which describes the mechanistic, directional turning of a plant, heliophilia is an existential orientation. It is the cat stretched in a slanted rectangle of afternoon gold, the lizard basking motionless on a sun-baked stone, and the deliberate pause of a human face turned upward to meet the day's first rays—a deep, vegetative contentment in being a temporary vessel for the light of a particular star.
Etymology
From helio- + -philia.
noun
- The property of an organism being attracted to sunlight or thriving in sunlight.