biconcave

American  

[bahy-kon-keyv, bahy-kon-keyv] / baɪˈkɒn keɪv, ˌbaɪ kɒnˈkeɪv /

adjective

1. concave on both sides, as a lens.

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biconcave British  

/ ˌbaɪkɒnˈkeɪv, baɪˈkɒnkeɪv, ˌbaɪkɒnˈkævɪtɪ /

adjective

1. (of a lens) having concave faces on both sides; concavo-concave

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biconcave Scientific  

/ bī′kŏn-kāv′ /

1. Concave on both sides or surfaces.

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Other Word Forms

• biconcavity noun

Etymology

Origin of biconcave

First recorded in 1825–35; bi- ¹ + concave

Example Sentences

This batch provided an answer: He had hereditary spherocytosis, a disease in which the red blood cells were tiny spheres rather than the usual biconcave discs.

From New York Times • May 16, 2023

They are compact, flexible and shaped like biconcave disks, which helps them slip through narrow capillaries and gives them a high volume-to-surface area ration, so they can hold a lot of hemoglobin and oxygen.

From Scientific American • May 6, 2019

The viewer observes Mr. Jacobs’s teeming green worlds through a custom-ordered biconcave lens.

From New York Times • May 8, 2018

The most abundant formed elements in blood, erythrocytes are red, biconcave disks packed with an oxygen-carrying compound called hemoglobin.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

The vertebræ of its backbone are not biconcave, but flat in front and behind.

From The Whence and the Whither of Man A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895 by Tyler, John Mason