Meaning

7 senses

  1. A polyhedron with parallel ends of the same polygonal shape and size, the other faces being parallelogram-shaped sides.

    An object having the shape of a geometrical prism (sense 1).

  2. A cutting (“open passage at a level lower than the surrounding terrain, dug for a canal, railway, or road to go through”) or an embankment shaped like a prism (sense 1) or a number of prisms, such that its volume can be easily calculated.

  3. A crystal in which the faces are parallel to the vertical axis.

    a polyhedron with two congruent and parallel faces (the bases) and whose lateral faces are parallelograms

  4. A transparent block in the shape of a prism (sense 1), typically with triangular ends, used to reflect or refract light.

    Prisma

    при́змаprízma

    при́змаprýzma

  5. (broadly)A retroreflector (“device which reflects light back to its source with minimal scattering”) which is usually attached to a surveying pole as a target for a total station which emits a light beam at the device and calculates how long it takes to be reflected back in order to measure distance.

  6. (figuratively)A perspective that colours one's perception.

  7. A transparent block in the shape of a prism (sense 1), typically with triangular ends, used to reflect or refract light.

    (archaic)A spectrum produced by light being refracted through a prism.

Examples

7 sentences

  1. A prism decomposes light.

    Призма розкладає світло. — aandrusiak

    ruПризма расщепляет свет. — odexed

    deEin Prisma zerlegt das Licht. — bluepie88

    AlanF_US · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. Light is resolved by a prism into seven colors.

    Tatoeba contributors · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. How many vertices and faces does a pentagonal prism have?

    kemushi69 · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Inside the prism, violet light slows down more than red light.

    Hybrid · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. A beam of white light is split by a prism into rays of various colors.

    Tatoeba contributors · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
type of polyhedron:
Русский
By meaning 1
type of polyhedron:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
type of polyhedron:

Origin

Learned borrowing from Late Latin prisma (“(geometry) prism”), from Ancient Greek πρίσμᾰ (

Learned borrowing from Late Latin prisma (“(geometry) prism”), from Ancient Greek πρίσμᾰ (prísmă, “anything sawn; sawdust; (Koine, geometry) prism”), from πρῐ́ζω (prĭ́zō) (a variant of πρῑ́ω (prī́ō, “to saw”), further etymology unknown) + -μᾰ (-mă, suffix forming neuter nouns denoting the effect or result of an action, etc.).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: prisms
Singularprism
Pluralprisms

regular

Synonyms

1 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • optical device having a triangular shape and made of glass or quartz; used to deviate a beam or invert an image:optical prism

Word family

32 related words
Relatedprismatic
Derivedantiprismduoprismforeprismgigantoprismgonioprismgrismhyperprismmicroprismaticnanoprismodor prismpolyprismaneprismalprismaneprismatedprismaticallyprismatoidprismatoidalprismedprismenchymaprism glassprismicprismlessprismlikeprismodic

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
prioritizepriorityB2priseC2prisonB1prisonerB1pristine

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

prism — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto