lens
a piece of transparent substance, usually glass, having two opposite surfaces either both curved or one curved and one plane, used in an optical device in changing the convergence of light rays, as for magnification, or in correcting defects of vision.
a combination of such pieces.
some analogous device, as for affecting sound waves, electromagnetic radiation, or streams of electrons.
Anatomy. crystalline lens.
Geology. a body of rock or ore that is thick in the middle and thinner toward the edges, similar in shape to a biconvex lens.
Movies. to film (a motion picture).
Origin of lens
1Other words from lens
- lensless, adjective
- lenslike, adjective
- un·lensed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use lens in a sentence
Likewise in the novel, things have changed constantly—new Nikons are coming out, new lenses.
David Cronenberg: Why Frustrated Novelists Hate the Screenplay | Craig Hubert | October 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut regardless of their different lenses, she said, “there seems to be a convergence of interests” between the two sides.
He did not wipe away the tears, but the long lenses of the television cameras showed him blinking them back behind his glasses.
What Would Jesus Do in Gaza? The Tears of Pope Francis Point the Way | Christopher Dickey | July 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTPitt cut his hair and wore brown contact lenses to de-pretty himself.
We should learn to look at climate change simultaneously through two very different lenses.
Climate Change Needs the Politics of the Impossible | Jedediah Purdy | April 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
By means of other lenses and prisms an image of the external object is thus made visible to those within the submarine.
The Wonder Book of Knowledge | VariousBeardsley looked up brightly, and even through those lenses Mandleco could see the sharp focus.
We're Friends, Now | Henry HasseCampani published in 1678 a work on horology, and on the manufacture of lenses for telescopes.
The thick triple lenses were free from clouding, and the glasses between them kept out the biting cold of the heights.
Astounding Stories, May, 1931 | VariousDetails became more and more perceptible, as if I were gradually changing the lenses of a microscope.
Urania | Camille Flammarion
British Dictionary definitions for lens (1 of 2)
/ (lɛnz) /
a piece of glass or other transparent material, used to converge or diverge transmitted light and form optical images
Also called: compound lens a combination of such lenses for forming images or concentrating a beam of light
a device that diverges or converges a beam of electromagnetic radiation, sound, or particles: See electron lens
anatomy See crystalline lens
Origin of lens
1Other words from lens
- Related adjective: lenticular
British Dictionary definitions for Lens (2 of 2)
/ (lenz, French lɑ̃) /
an industrial town in N France, in the Pas de Calais department; badly damaged in both World Wars. Pop: 36 206 (1999)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for lens
[ lĕnz ]
A transparent structure behind the iris of the eye that focuses light entering the eye on the retina.
A piece of glass or plastic shaped so as to focus or spread light rays that pass through it, often for the purpose of forming an image.
A combination of two or more such lenses, as in a camera or telescope. Also called compound lens
A device that causes radiation to converge or diverge by an action analogous to that of an optical lens. The system of electric fields used to focus electron beams in electron microscopes is an example of a lens.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for lens (1 of 2)
A piece of transparent material, such as glass, that forms an image from the rays of light passing through it. (See focal length, refraction, and telescope.)
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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