prism

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a transparent optical element with flat faces that refracts light, often separating it into colors

   A glass prism split the white beam into a visible spectrum.

2. 2
   noun

   geometry: a solid with two congruent parallel polygonal bases joined by parallelogram faces

   The package has the shape of a triangular prism.

3. 3
   noun

   a perspective or medium through which something is viewed or interpreted

   The memoir examines childhood through the prism of adult regret.

A learned borrowing from Late Latin prisma, from Greek prisma ("something sawn; a prism"), formed from prizein ("to saw"). The geometric name refers to a solid as if cut by parallel planes; optics adopted it for similarly shaped transparent elements.

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