Thesaurus: lens

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1. n. A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground with two opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one curved and the other plane, and commonly used, either singly or combined, in optical instruments, for changing the direction of rays of light, and thus magnifying objects, or otherwise modifying vision. In practice, the curved surfaces are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical, or of some other figure.
2. n. a transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images
3. n. (metaphor) a channel through which something can be seen or understood
4. n. biconvex transparent body situated behind the iris in the eye; its role (along with the cornea) is to focus light on the retina
5. n. electronic equipment that uses a magnetic or electric field in order to focus a beam of electrons
6. A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground with two opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one curved and the other plane, and commonly used, either singly or combined, in optical instruments, for changing the direction of rays of light, and thus magnifying objects, or otherwise modifying vision. In practice, the curved surfaces are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical, or of some other figure. Lenses Note: Of spherical lenses, there are six varieties, as shown in section in the figures herewith given: viz., a plano-concave; b double-concave; c plano-convex; d double-convex; converging concavo- convex, or converging meniscus; f diverging concavo-convex, or diverging meniscus. Crossed lens (Opt.), a double-convex lens with one radius equal to six times the other. -- Crystalline lens. (Anat.) See Eye. -- Fresnel lens (Opt.), a compound lens formed by placing around a central convex lens rings of glass so curved as to have the same focus; used, especially in lighthouses, for concentrating light in a particular direction; -- so called from the inventor. -- Multiplying lens or glass (Opt.), a lens one side of which is plane and the other convex, but made up of a number of plane faces inclined to one another, each of which presents a separate image of the object viewed through it, so that the object is, as it were, multiplied. -- Polyzonal lens. See Polyzonal.
7. A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground withtwo opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one curved andthe other plane, and commonly used, either singly or combined, inoptical instruments, for changing the direction of rays of light, andthus magnifying objects, or otherwise modifying vision. In practice,the curved surfaces are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical,or of some other figure. Lenses
8. n:100 n. a transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images n. genus of small erect or climbing herbs with pinnate leaves and small inconspicuous white flowers and small flattened pods: lentils n. (metaphor) a channel through which something can be seen or understood n. biconvex transparent body situated behind the iris in the eye; its role (along with the cornea) is to focuses light on the retina