prism

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“
A letter prism is a tentlike plastic prism, closed at the ends, open on one side, and bearing letters and scoring points on the other two sides.

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Definitions (37)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A solid figure whose bases or ends have the same size and shape and are parallel to one another, and each of whose sides is a parallelogram.
  2. noun A transparent body of this form, often of glass and usually with triangular ends, used for separating white light passed through it into a spectrum or for reflecting beams of light.
  3. noun A cut-glass object, such as a pendant of a chandelier.
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Examples

  • A letter prism is a tentlike plastic prism, closed at the ends, open on one side, and bearing letters and scoring points on the other two sides. —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol X No 3
  • When the prism was absent the spot was nearly circular, but when the prism was introduced the spot was about five times as long as it was broad. —  Great Astronomers
  • And the prism was shaped like a prism, and the light signals would come in, and they'd be split by the prism. —  Democracy Now!
  • The center of gravity of a prism is the center of its axis. —  Geometrical Solutions Derived from Mechanics; a Treatise of Archimedes
  • The form of instrument which Fraunhofer adopted for this work, in which the prism was placed outside the object glass of the telescope, has not been much used until within the last few years, owing to the difficulty of obtaining prisms of large dimensions (for it is obvious that the prism ought to be as large as the object glass if the full power of the latter is to be made use of), but this is the simplest form of spectroscope for observing spectra of objects of no sensible angular diameter, like the fixed stars. —  The Story of the Heavens
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Late Latin prīsma, from Greek prīsma, thing sawed off, prism, from prīzein, to saw, variant of prīein.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French prisme = Spanish Portuguese Italian prisma = D. G. Swedish Danish prisma, from Late Latin prisma, a prism (in geometry), from Greek πρίσμα, a prism (in geometry), literally something sawed (as a block of wood), also sawdust, from πρίειν, πρίξειν, saw.
 

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/prɪzm/
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