Word.ws English Dictionary

colmascope

colmascope noun: an instrument for visualising stressed regions, especially internal regions, in substances such as glass, by detecting differences in the degree of rotation of the plane of polarisation, generally by placing the object between crossed polarizers.

colmascope: an instrument for visualising stressed regions, especially internal regions, in substances such as...
Image: Takis lazos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

colmascope (plural colmascopes)

  1. An instrument for visualising stressed regions, especially internal regions, in substances such as glass, by detecting differences in the degree of rotation of the plane of polarisation, generally by placing the object between crossed polarizers.
    • A device like those in which one polariser is fixed and the other rotatable — often with marked gradations — is called a polariscope or a polarimeter. One in which the polarisers are fixed at right angles is often called a "colmascope", but this name is actually a trademarked device, first...
    • Why did American Optical come up with the name "Colmascope" …? Certainly they wanted a name that would set their device apart from the other polariscopes on the market, so they cast about for something without "polari-" in the name. Their choice seems to derive from Greek root kolmo- meaning...Stephen R. Wilk (2021), Sandbows and Black Lights, pages 47–

Forms of colmascope

pluralcolmascopes

Origin of colmascope

Trademark name (see citations for discussion).

Questions about colmascope

What does colmascope mean?
Colmascope means an instrument for visualising stressed regions, especially internal regions, in substances such as glass, by detecting differences in the degree of rotation of the plane of polarisation, generally by placing the object between crossed polarizers.
What part of speech is colmascope?
Colmascope is a noun.
What is the plural of colmascope?
The plural of colmascope is colmascopes.

Words near colmascope in the dictionary

  1. Colm
  2. Colma
  3. colmado
  4. Colman
  5. Colmar
  6. colmascope
  7. colmascopes
  8. colmatage
  9. colmatation
  10. colmation
  11. Colmenar de Oreja

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: colmascope (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “colmascope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/colmascope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.