prism

[ priz-uhm ]

noun

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.

prism

/ 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

prism

/ 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.

prism

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.

Notes

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of prism¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of prism¹

C16: from Medieval Latin prisma, from Greek: something shaped by sawing, from prizein to saw

Example Sentences

That one went quickly out to the left, where Smith caught it and made a breathtaking passage around three Ohio State defenders in the last little prism of space available on the left side of the field, stopping only 22 yards later.

From Washington Post

The scientists could watch through a tiny prism as neurons fired and lit up.

From Science News For Students

The favored approach to understanding colonial rule, particularly in Africa, is through the prism of political governance—how the colonial authority was imposed through local or native authorities.

From Quartz

Try placing some plastic wrap or a prism over the lens to test out different effects in refracting the light.

From Outside Online

The viewfinder has moved over to the top left corner of the body—the A7 line puts it at the top where the prism would be on a DSLR.

From Popular-Science

I recognize my inability to truly understand these events in the same context or view these events through exactly the same prism.

From The Daily Beast

You had the PRISM program, and you also have National Security letters.

From The Daily Beast

He pops from the screen as a charismatic, occasionally messianic “human prism,” as Moss calls him.

From The Daily Beast

Snowden himself exposed a program known as PRISM that provided these so-called back doors to the NSA in the United States.

From The Daily Beast

Mistakes happen, nuance is often lost, and everything is seen through a prism of who is winning and who is losing.

From The Daily Beast

At eighteen does not love hold a prism between the world and the eyes of a young girl?

From Project Gutenberg

His name and his bright past, seen through the prism of whispered gossip, had gained him the nickname of The Admiral.

From Project Gutenberg

It was an irregular trapezium, a mass struck off from the colossal granitic prism of the Great Douvre.

From Project Gutenberg

A theme taken from a medival author; an antique figure, that of Virgil, but seen through the prism of modern poetry.

From Project Gutenberg

Analysis by the prism alone has quite doubled the knowledge that was previously available.

From Project Gutenberg