A prism is a block of clear glass or plastic which separates the light passing through it into different colours.
2. countable noun [usually singular, NOUNof noun]
If you see something through a prism of something such as time or memory, your idea of it is affected by that thing.
[literary]
Through the smoky prism of time, I could just barely make out my father as a youngman.
prism in British English
(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. mathematics
a polyhedron having parallel, polygonal, and congruent bases and sides that are parallelograms
Word origin
C16: from Medieval Latin prisma, from Greek: something shaped by sawing, from prizein to saw
prism in American English
(ˈprɪzəm)
noun
1. Geometry
a solid figure whose ends are parallel, polygonal, and equal in size and shape, and whose sides are parallelograms
2.
a crystalline body whose lateral faces meet at edges that are parallel to each other
3.
anything that refracts light, as a drop of water
4. Optics
a.
a transparent body, as of glass, whose ends are equal and parallel triangles, and whose three sides are parallelograms: used for refracting or dispersing light, as into the spectrum
b.
any similar body of three or more sides
Word origin
LL prisma < Gr, lit., something sawed < prizein, to saw < priein, to saw, bite; ? akin to Alb prish, (I) destroy, break
Examples of 'prism' in a sentence
prism
These act like a glass prism, bending the sunlight into a spectrum of colours, ending with green followed by blue light.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
All related terms of 'prism'
Nicol prism
a device composed of two prisms of Iceland spar or calcite cut at specified angles and cemented together with Canada balsam . It is used for producing plane-polarized light
Porro prism
an isosceles , right-triangular prism in which light entering one half of the hypotenuse face is reflected at the two short sides and is reversed in orientation when it leaves the other half of the hypotenuse: used in 90°- oriented pairs in binoculars to increase the length of the optical path and to erect the final image
reflecting prism
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
pentaprism
a five-sided prism that deviates light from any direction through an angle of 90°, typically used in single-lens reflex cameras between lens and viewfinder to present the image the right way round
accretionary wedge
a body of deformed sediments , wedge-shaped in two dimensions or prism-shaped in three dimensions, that has been scraped off the surface of the oceanic lithosphere as it moves downwards beneath a continent or island arc . The sediments are added to the continental edge