perspective

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A view, vista or outlook.

   And according to Hughes, HM Treasury is still sceptical about rail electrification. "It's not because they don't see electrification as a good thing, but I think when you look at it from the UK-wide perspective, if you have £x billion to spend on decarbonisation, you don't necessarily start with rail. Rail's not where you get the biggest bang for the buck in terms of decarbonisation."

2. 2
   noun

   A perspective glass.

   […] our predecessors; who could never have believed, that there were such lunets about some of the planets, as our late perspectives have descried […]

3. 3
   adj

   Of, in or relating to perspective.

   a perspective drawing

4. 4
   adj

   Providing visual aid; of or relating to the science of vision; optical.

   perspective glasses

5. 5
   noun

   the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer

6. 6
   noun

   a way of regarding situations or topics etc.

7. 7
   noun

   The appearance of depth in objects, especially as perceived using binocular vision.

8. 8
   noun

   The technique of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface.

Etymology

From Middle English perspective, perspectif, attested since 1381, from Old French or Middle French, from the first word of the Medieval Latin perspectiva ars (“science of optics”), the feminine of Latin perspectivus (“of sight, optical”), from perspectus, the past participle of perspicere (“to inspect, look through”), itself from per- (“through”) + specere (“to look at”); the noun sense was influenced or mediated by Italian prospettiva, from prospetto (“prospect”).