spectrum

C1 Topic:Astronomy & Space

US /ˈspɛktrəm/ UK /ˈspɛktɹəm/ See IPA manual

Freq #11765

Meanings

1

noun
A wide range of related ideas, opinions, qualities, or things.

The festival attracts people from across the political spectrum.
2

noun
The band of colours produced when light passes through a prism, or the full range of light and radiation.

A rainbow shows the colours of the visible spectrum.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a wide range of related... continuumsliding scale

Word family

Forms spectraspectrums

Derived forms autospectrumbispectrumbroad-spectrumcepstrummultispectrumnarrow-spectrumpolyspectrumpseudospectrumspec-chumspectro-spectrumysubspectrum

Related forms spectral

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

infrared spectrum
the range or recorded distribution of infrared radiation

Adjective + noun

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti Proto-Italic *spekjō Latin speciō Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Italic *-trom Latin -trum Latin spectrumbor. English spectrum From Latin spectrum (“appearance, image, apparition”), from speciō (“look at, view”). Doublet of specter. See also scope.

spectrum Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Astronomy & Space Physics General Vocabulary

External links

# spectrum

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈspɛktrəm/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈspɛktɹəm/
**Frequency rank:** 11765

## Meanings
1. A wide range of related ideas, opinions, qualities, or things.
2. The band of colours produced when light passes through a prism, or the full range of light and radiation.

## Examples
- The festival attracts people from across the political spectrum.
- A rainbow shows the colours of the visible spectrum.

## Derived Forms
- autospectrum
- bispectrum
- broad-spectrum
- cepstrum
- multispectrum
- narrow-spectrum
- polyspectrum
- pseudospectrum
- spec-chum
- spectro-
- spectrumy
- subspectrum

## Related Forms
- spectral

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: spectrum

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti Proto-Italic *spekjō Latin speciō Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Italic *-trom Latin -trum Latin spectrumbor. English spectrum From Latin spectrum (“appearance, image, apparition”), from speciō (“look at, view”). Doublet of specter. See also scope.

## AI Etymology
Spectrum comes from Latin spectrum (“appearance, image, apparition”), from speciō (“look at, view”). Doublet of specter. See also scope. The historical chain includes spectrum (Latin). The surrounding word family includes derived forms such as autospectrum, bispectrum, broad-spectrum, and cepstrum and related forms such as spectral. In present use it covers a wide range of related ideas, opinions, qualities, or things and the band of colours produced when light passes through a prism, or the full range of light and radiation.

## Topics
- Astronomy & Space
- Physics
- General Vocabulary

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