prism

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“
And the prism was shaped like a prism, and the light signals would come in, and they'd be split by the prism.

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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 (50)

  • If you rotate the prism, you'll find that the light shining through the prism is brightest at one particular angle, which will depend on the geometry of your prism. —  F ;SF; - vol 093 issue 06 - December 1997
  • It's shaped and inspired from a prism, which is why there are so many neat colors on its side. —  Unplugged
  • With combination of penta-mirror prism, a PENTAX-original finder optics and Natural-Bright-Matte focusing screen, the PENTAX K-m's viewfinder delivers a large, bright subject image with an approximately 96-percent field of view and an approximately 0. 85-times magnification. —  My Digital Life
  • Each side will explain with lawyerly arguments there are good reasons for this and point to the other - and depending on your political prism, these explanations will be perfectly logical. —  The Moderate Voice
  • The finger scanning window is a 13mm thick crown glass prism which is much more reliable and robust than semiconductor fingerprint sensor. —  The Earth Times Online Newspaper
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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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