Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to light.
  • adjective Penetrated by or receiving light.
  • adjective Designating or relating to the layer of a body of water that is penetrated by sufficient sunlight for photosynthesis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pert. to light; specif., relating to the production of light by the lower animals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of, related to, or irradiated by light; especially describing that part of the near-surface ocean is which photosynthesis is possible

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or caused by light

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

photo- + -ic

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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.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2008

  • One and Three Photographs [Ety.] stands out within this series because it makes photography the subject of this inquiry and because the term used to verbally represent the photograph is "photic," which means of or related to light.

    unknown title 2009

  • 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).

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • 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).

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • This strongly indicated that photic sneezing has a genetic component, and further studies have borne that out.

    Book review: Wicked by Gregory Maguire ewillett 2009

  • 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.

    Ancient Predator Revealed! 2009

  • 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.

    Book review: Wicked by Gregory Maguire ewillett 2009

  • 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.

    Book review: Wicked by Gregory Maguire ewillett 2009

  • Sunlight can only penetrate to a depth of about 183 meters (m) (the photic zone).

    Differences between aquatic and terrestrial environments 2009

  • 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.

    Differences between aquatic and terrestrial environments 2009

Comments

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  • A small patch of countryside kept floating before my eyes like some photic illusion.

    --Vladimir Nabokov, 1974, Look at the Harlequins! p. 75

    June 13, 2009