prism

American  

[priz-uhm] / ˈprɪz əm /

noun

prisms plural

1. Optics. a transparent solid body, often having triangular bases, used for dispersing light into a spectrum or for reflecting rays of light.

2. Geometry. a solid having bases or ends that are parallel, congruent polygons and sides that are parallelograms.

3. Crystallography. a form having faces parallel to the vertical axis and intersecting the horizontal axes.

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prism British  

/ ˈprɪzəm /

noun

1. a transparent polygonal solid, often having triangular ends and rectangular sides, for dispersing light into a spectrum or for reflecting and deviating light. They are used in spectroscopes, binoculars, periscopes, etc

2. a form of crystal with faces parallel to the vertical axis

3. maths a polyhedron having parallel, polygonal, and congruent bases and sides that are parallelograms

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prism Scientific  

/ prĭz′əm /

1. A geometric solid whose bases are congruent polygons lying in parallel planes and whose sides are parallelograms.

2. A solid of this type, often made of glass with triangular ends, used to disperse light and break it up into a spectrum.

3. A crystal form having 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12 faces parallel to the vertical axis and intersecting the horizontal axis.

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prism Cultural  

1. A solid figure in geometry with bases or ends of the same size and shape and sides that have parallel edges. Also, an object that has this shape.

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Discover More

A prism of glass (or a similar transparent material) can be used to bend different wavelengths of light by different amounts through refraction. This bending separates a beam of white light into a spectrum of colored light.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• prisms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of prism

1560–70; < Late Latin prīsma < Greek prîsma literally, something sawed, akin to prī́zein to saw, prīstēs sawyer

Explanation

In geometry, a prism is a three-dimensional shape that has two bases that are parallel and the same size and shape. The prism's sides are all parallelograms. A classic pup tent is a triangular prism. In optics, a prism is a piece of glass, quartz, plastic, or other material that can be used to refract light. A typical prism is triangular in shape, and when white light (like sunlight) is shown through it, the prism breaks the light into separate colors and displays it as a rainbow (color spectrum). Sir Isaac Newton experimented with prisms in the 1600s, and his work was the beginning of the modern period of both optics and the understanding of light.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

prism prisms

Certain that Ingres had used something optical to achieve that quality, Hockney bought himself a camera lucida, a small device that works like a prism.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

They also examined spectra, which are created when light is separated into its component wavelengths, much like a prism creating a rainbow.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026

"Through the prism of a crowded and remarkable past, she made incomparable company, carrying her memories lightly, and always with humour," India also wrote in her statement on Instagram.

From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026

As a child, Olivia Kelly came to understand personal finances through the prism of her mother’s divorce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026

When an intense beam of ordinary white light passes through a narrow slit and then through a prism or grating, it is spread into a rainbow of colors called a spectrum.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

About the size of a cookie, each array contains eight quartz corner cube prisms mounted inside a dome shaped aluminum frame.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026

And then there are the rectangular prisms jutting out of the floor, standing 20 feet apart from the last, with LED screens blasting clips from the movie into viewers’ subconscious.

From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2026

Images afterward show bags were placed around a few of Golestan’s massive chandeliers to catch any falling crystal prisms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Spectrographs: Gratings or prisms separate incoming light into spectra to reveal the intensity of individual wavelengths.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 1, 2022

He stands in front of a tabletop divided into compartments, placing tiny rectangular prisms of leaden letterforms into a bracket in his hand.

From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper