MEANING
1. A transparent optical object that bends light and can separate white light into colours.
2. A solid with two matching, parallel polygonal ends joined by flat side faces.
3. A perspective or experience through which something is understood and given a particular emphasis.
Use it for
describing light split into a spectrum; creating a precise image of refraction; distinguishing an optical effect from reflected lightSupports precise light imagery and a useful metaphor for how a perspective shapes interpretation, with geometry kept distinct. Writing functions: Perception / Imagery.
Words that belong together
- a glass prism
- a refracting prism
- light through a prism
On the page
The small prism laid a ribbon of colour across the otherwise colourless desk.
He turned the prism until the separate bands slipped onto the wall.
The chamber was a hexagonal prism, its two end walls exactly alike.
From the diagram, the block appeared to be a rectangular prism rather than a tapering tower.
She saw the argument through the prism of their last meeting.
Word forms
- Base
- prism
Usage notes
Count noun: prism; plural prisms. Through the prism of is a figurative framing construction, not another canonical idiom entry. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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