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prism

[priz-uhm]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

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

prism

/ ˈ��ɪ��ə�� /

noun

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
a form of crystal with faces parallel to the vertical axis
maths a polyhedron having parallel, polygonal, and congruent bases and sides that are parallelograms

prism

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

prism

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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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 ��ī�� < Greek ��î�� literally, something sawed, akin to ��ī́��𾱲� to saw, ��ī��ŧ�� 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

Examples have not been reviewed.

To find an alternative route through that fog, we decided to approach it through the prism of laws that are supposed to regulate warfare and protect civilians.

From

To be the miner's canary means that the experiences of Black people are a prism through which to see a whole wide range of inequalities, beyond race, in this society.

From

Looked at through a prism of red, it was just about the most perfect game ever played.

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Some of its MPs worry that it will be difficult to change the negative prism through which the government is viewed.

From

The Broadway performance that cut the deepest for me was Audra McDonald as Rose in George C. Wolfe’s revival of “Gypsy,” a harrowing reexamination of the musical through the historical prism of race.

From

prisiadka prismatic

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