facet
/ˈfasɪt
/ /ˈfasɛt/
noun
1One side of something many-sided, especially of a cut gem: a blue and green jewel that shines from a million facets...
- The many voices of the metropolis only come together like facets of a many-sided prism in the fourth projection, which stands separate from the other three.
- He walked to the window, and suddenly, it shattered and produced a million facets of light.
- The different facets act both as surface decoration and refract light through the vessel.
Synonyms
surface, face, side, plane, angle, slant
2A particular aspect or feature of something: a philosophy that extends to all facets of the business...
- A facet is an aspect or dimension of an object or piece of information.
- Cyberspace right now is made up of a series of windows on the real world, that allow us to see views, or facets, or aspects of people elsewhere.
- The resulting communication failure featured a number of facets.
Synonyms
aspect, feature, side, dimension, particular, characteristic, detail, point, ingredient, strand, factor;
component, constituent, element, part, section, portion, piece, bit;
angle, slant, sense, respect, regard, way, viewpoint, standpoint
3 Zoology Any of the individual units (ommatidia) that make up the compound eye of an insect or crustacean.For example, although crustacean compound eye facets are diverse, most are similar to insect ommatidia....
- Often later ommatidial cell fates cannot be specified, such as pigment cells that normally function to separate ommatidia into individual facets.
- Drosophila compound eyes are composed of 800 identical facets or ommatidia.
Derivatives
faceted
/ /ˈfasɛtɪd / adjective [in combination]: a multifaceted approach
Origin
Early 17th century: from French facette, diminutive of face 'face, side' (see face).
Rhymes
- Orthonectida
- orthonormal
- orthonormalise
- orthonormality
- orthonormalization
- orthonormalize
- orthopaedic
- orthopaedically
- orthopaedic bed
- orthopaedics
- orthopaedist
- orthopaedy
- orthopantomogram
- orthopantomograph
- orthopantomography
- orthopedic
- orthopedics
- orthopedy
- orthopercussion
- orthophonic
- orthophony
- orthophoria
- orthophosphate
- orthophosphoric acid
- orthophoto