camera obscura

American  

[ob-skyoor-uh] / ɒbˈskyʊər ə /

noun

1. a darkened boxlike device in which images of external objects, received through an aperture, as with a convex lens, are exhibited in their natural colors on a surface arranged to receive them: used for sketching, exhibition purposes, etc.

---

camera obscura British  

/ ɒbˈskjʊərə /

noun

1. Sometimes shortened to: camera.  a darkened chamber or small building in which images of outside objects are projected onto a flat surface by a convex lens in an aperture

---

Etymology

Origin of camera obscura

1660–70; < New Latin: dark chamber; see camera ¹, obscure

Example Sentences

The rear façade consists of three pavilions that Mr. Lacovara says were modeled on the camera obscura, used by Renaissance artists to achieve accurate perspective.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2025

To a child, a box can be a doll’s house or a rocket ship, a camera obscura or a magic carpet sailing down the concrete slides in Golden Gate Park.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 3, 2023

Weber said Vermeer had probably entered a camera obscura, and “translated that experience into his own art.”

From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2023

He showed me the camera obscura he kept in his loft.

From The Guardian • Jan. 23, 2020

On their return to the American shore, they examined a camera obscura, which is situated at the head of the American stair-case, and was built by a Swiss.

From Alida or, Miscellaneous Sketches of Incidents During the Late American War. Founded on Fact by Comfield, Amelia Stratton