PRISMATIC

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prismatic mean? 

• PRISMATIC (adjective)
  The adjective PRISMATIC has 2 senses:

1. of or relating to or resembling or constituting a prism

2. exhibiting spectral colors formed by refraction of light through a prism

  Familiarity information: PRISMATIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRISMATIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to or resembling or constituting a prism

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

prismatic form

Pertainym:

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

Derivation:

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

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exhibiting spectral colors formed by refraction of light through a prism

Context example:

prismatic light

Similar:

colorful; colourful (having much or varied color)

Derivation:

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

 Context examples 

A naturally occurring, fibrous mineral consisting of white, prismatic crystals.

(Erionite, NCI Thesaurus)

Large single cells, either cylindrical or prismatic in shape, that form the basic unit of muscle tissue.

(Murine Rhabdomyocytes, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

From the circumstance of the latter article having been much polished, and displaying prismatic colours on the inside, I conclude that Mr. Barkis had some general ideas about pearls, which never resolved themselves into anything definite.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I received one morning by the post, the following letter, dated Canterbury, and addressed to me at Doctor's Commons; which I read with some surprise: Circumstances beyond my individual control have, for a considerable lapse of time, effected a severance of that intimacy which, in the limited opportunities conceded to me in the midst of my professional duties, of contemplating the scenes and events of the past, tinged by the prismatic hues of memory, has ever afforded me, as it ever must continue to afford, gratifying emotions of no common description.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)