Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to light.
- adj. Penetrated by or receiving light.
- adj. Designating or relating to the layer of a body of water that is penetrated by sufficient sunlight for photosynthesis: the photic zone of the ocean.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to those forms of radiation which are productive of luminous effects; relating to light.
- In phytogeography, well-lighted: designating the upper bright region of bodies of water in which the light is sufficiently intense for the normal development of microphytes. Correlated with dysphotic and aphotic.
Wiktionary
- adj. of, related to, or irradiated by light; especially describing that part of the near-surface ocean is which photosynthesis is possible
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pert. to light; specif., relating to the production of light by the lower animals.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to or caused by light
Etymologies
- photo- + -ic (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Sneezing as the result of being exposed to a bright light-known as the photic sneeze reflex-is a genetic quirk that is still unexplained by science, even though it has intrigued some of history's greatest minds.”
“Along with genetic analysis of a variety of other traits (such as photic sneeze) Eriksson presented data on two novel regions significantly associated with hair curl, one close to the the abstract for details).”
“As in the case of all algae, cells below a minimum size (about a mm or so) are effectively neutrally buoyant, which would have been extraordinarily important, as they would otherwise sink into the sub-photic zone and die.”
“This is known as autosomal dominant transmission, so photic sneezing now has the irresistible scientific name of “autosomal-dominant compelling helio-opthalmic outburst,” the acronym for which is, of course, ACHOO.”
“Among other things, he asked those with photic sneezing (18 percent of the patients and 24 percent of the students) if they had any close relatives who reacted to sunlight the same way, and found that 80 percent of the sneezers said they did, compared to only 20 percent of the non-sneezers.”
“This strongly indicated that photic sneezing has a genetic component, and further studies have borne that out.”
“Sunlight can only penetrate to a depth of about 183 meters (m) (the photic zone).”
“Because photosynthesis is only possible in the photic zone and because the average depth of the oceans is about 3,800 m, most of the ocean is too deep to for photosynthesis to occur.”
“Deep ocean ecosystems rely either on the input of detritus (whose energy originally comes from the photic zone) or deep-sea vents.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘photic’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 521 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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dark and bright words of shine and fi...
scotophil, scotoma, scotia, shed, shadow, shade, scone, whiting, edelweiss, light, lightning, lucina and 349 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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Nabokovia
slime, mnemoptical, reverbed, forefeel, fair copy, scriggle, gaufrette, inamorata, wanter, noctambule, incarnadine, intercadence and 59 more...
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Words for a Rainy Day
A passionate collection of phrases
mercurial, barathrum, patency, doctrinaire, blatherskite, pother, crepuscular, prescind, estivation, anomie, avolition, cathexis and 20 more...
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Words from my geology paper that are ...
ejecta, abiogenesis, impactor, hydrocode, planetesimals, photic, panspermia, hydrothermal
Tweets
Looking for tweets for photic.
mollusque A small patch of countryside kept floating before my eyes like some photic illusion.
--Vladimir Nabokov, 1974, Look at the Harlequins! p. 75 Jun 13, 2009