PRISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prism mean? 

• PRISM (noun)
  The noun PRISM has 2 senses:

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

2. optical device having a triangular shape and made of glass or quartz; used to deviate a beam or invert an image

  Familiarity information: PRISM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("prism" is a kind of...):

polyhedron (a solid figure bounded by plane polygons or faces)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prism"):

parallelepiped; parallelepipedon; parallelopiped; parallelopipedon (a prism whose bases are parallelograms)

quadrangular prism (a prism whose bases are quadrangles)

triangular prism (a prism whose bases are triangles)

Derivation:

prismatic (of or relating to or resembling or constituting a prism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Optical device having a triangular shape and made of glass or quartz; used to deviate a beam or invert an image

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

optical prism; prism

Hypernyms ("prism" is a kind of...):

optical device (a device for producing or controlling light)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prism"):

erecting prism (a right-angled optical prism used to turn an inverted image upright)

Holonyms ("prism" is a part of...):

biprism (an optical device for obtaining interference fringes)

prism spectroscope; spectroscope (an optical instrument for spectrographic analysis)

scope; telescope (a magnifier of images of distant objects)

Derivation:

prismatic (exhibiting spectral colors formed by refraction of light through a prism)

prismatic (of or relating to or resembling or constituting a prism)

 Context examples 

Light from sunsets, stars and planets can be separated into its component colors to create spectra, as prisms do with sunlight, in order to obtain hidden information.

(Sunsets on Titan reveal the complexity of hazy exoplanets, NASA)

However, even now, the majority of spectrometers are based around principles similar to what Newton demonstrated with his prism: the spatial separation of light into different spectral components.

(Nanowires replace Newton’s famous glass prism, University of Cambridge)

"'Prunes and prisms' are my doom, and I may as well make up my mind to it. I came here to moralize, not to hear things that make me skip to think of."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Known as OVIRS (short for the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer), the instrument will measure visible and near-infrared light reflected and emitted from the asteroid and split the light into its component wavelengths, much like a prism that splits sunlight into a rainbow.

(NASA to Map the Surface of an Asteroid, NASA)

Their functions include contribution to the development of the dentinoenamel junction by the deposition of a layer of the matrix, thus producing the foundation for the prisms (the structural units of the dental enamel), and production of the matrix for the enamel prisms and interprismatic substance.

(Ameloblast, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

In the 17th century, Isaac Newton, through his observations on the splitting of light by a prism, sowed the seeds for a new field of science studying the interactions between light and matter – spectroscopy.

(Nanowires replace Newton’s famous glass prism, University of Cambridge)