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View synonyms for prism

prism

[ priz-uhm ]

noun

  1. Optics. a transparent solid body, often having triangular bases, used for dispersing light into a spectrum or for reflecting rays of light.
  2. Geometry. a solid having bases or ends that are parallel, congruent polygons and sides that are parallelograms.
  3. Crystallography. a form having faces parallel to the vertical axis and intersecting the horizontal axes.


prism

/ ˈprɪzəm /

noun

  1. a transparent polygonal solid, often having triangular ends and rectangular sides, for dispersing light into a spectrum or for reflecting and deviating light. They are used in spectroscopes, binoculars, periscopes, etc
  2. a form of crystal with faces parallel to the vertical axis
  3. maths a polyhedron having parallel, polygonal, and congruent bases and sides that are parallelograms
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


prism

/ prĭzəm /

  1. A geometric solid whose bases are congruent polygons lying in parallel planes and whose sides are parallelograms.
  2. A solid of this type, often made of glass with triangular ends, used to disperse light and break it up into a spectrum.
  3. A crystal form having 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12 faces parallel to the vertical axis and intersecting the horizontal axis.


prism

  1. A solid figure in geometry with bases or ends of the same size and shape and sides that have parallel edges. Also, an object that has this shape.


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Notes

A prism of glass (or a similar transparent material) can be used to bend different wavelengths of light by different amounts through refraction . This bending separates a beam of white light into a spectrum of colored light.
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Word History and Origins

Origin of prism1

1560–70; < Late Latin prīsma < Greek prîsma literally, something sawed, akin to prī́zein to saw, prīstēs sawyer
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Word History and Origins

Origin of prism1

C16: from Medieval Latin prisma, from Greek: something shaped by sawing, from prizein to saw
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Example Sentences

That one went quickly out to the left, where Smith caught it and made a breathtaking passage around three Ohio State defenders in the last little prism of space available on the left side of the field, stopping only 22 yards later.

The scientists could watch through a tiny prism as neurons fired and lit up.

The favored approach to understanding colonial rule, particularly in Africa, is through the prism of political governance—how the colonial authority was imposed through local or native authorities.

From Quartz

Try placing some plastic wrap or a prism over the lens to test out different effects in refracting the light.

The viewfinder has moved over to the top left corner of the body—the A7 line puts it at the top where the prism would be on a DSLR.

I recognize my inability to truly understand these events in the same context or view these events through exactly the same prism.

You had the PRISM program, and you also have National Security letters.

He pops from the screen as a charismatic, occasionally messianic “human prism,” as Moss calls him.

Snowden himself exposed a program known as PRISM that provided these so-called back doors to the NSA in the United States.

Mistakes happen, nuance is often lost, and everything is seen through a prism of who is winning and who is losing.

At eighteen does not love hold a prism between the world and the eyes of a young girl?

His name and his bright past, seen through the prism of whispered gossip, had gained him the nickname of The Admiral.

It was an irregular trapezium, a mass struck off from the colossal granitic prism of the Great Douvre.

A theme taken from a medival author; an antique figure, that of Virgil, but seen through the prism of modern poetry.

Analysis by the prism alone has quite doubled the knowledge that was previously available.

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