refract

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to make light, sound, or another wave change direction as it passes between media

   Water refracts the light and makes the submerged pencil appear bent.

2. 2
   verb

   medicine: to measure an eye's refractive error in order to determine the needed lens power

   The optometrist will refract each eye before prescribing new glasses.

3. 3
   verb

   figurative: to alter or distort something as it passes through a perspective or medium

   The novel refracts the historical event through several unreliable narrators.

Simplified etymology

Refract is recorded in English from the mid-16th century and comes from classical Latin refringere, a verb formed from Latin frangere, “to break.”

From Latin refractus, the past participle of refringere ("to break up or bend back"), built from re- + frangere ("to break"). English specialized the verb for the apparent bending of light and later other waves as they cross between media.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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