Word.ws English Dictionary

critical angle

critical angle noun: the angle of incidence beyond which light traveling through a medium experiences total internal reflection upon encountering a boundary with a less refractive medium.

critical angle: the angle of incidence beyond which light traveling through a medium experiences total internal...
Image: Lasse Havelund, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

critical angle (plural critical angles)

  1. The angle of incidence beyond which light traveling through a medium experiences total internal reflection upon encountering a boundary with a less refractive medium.
  2. The angle of attack beyond which an airfoil stalls, experiencing a decrease in lift and increase in drag due to separation of airflow from the upper surface of the airfoil.
  3. The angle beyond which a ramp or a set of stairs is considered uncomfortable or unsafe.

critical angle meaning in Tamil, Tagalog and Arabic

critical angle in Tamil

மாறுநிலைக் கோணம், மாறுநிலைக்கோணம், அவதிக்கோணம், உய் கோணம், உய்யக்கோணம், மாறுதானக் கோணம்

critical angle in Tagalog

smallest angle of incidence
maselang siha

critical angle in Arabic

smallest angle of incidence
زَاوِيَة حَرِجَة

Synonyms of critical angle

Forms of critical angle

pluralcritical angles

Questions about critical angle

What does critical angle mean?
Critical angle means the angle of incidence beyond which light traveling through a medium experiences total internal reflection upon encountering a boundary with a less refractive medium.
What is critical angle in Tamil?
Critical angle in Tamil is மாறுநிலைக் கோணம், மாறுநிலைக்கோணம், அவதிக்கோணம். See Critical angle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is critical angle?
Critical angle is a noun.
What is the plural of critical angle?
The plural of critical angle is critical angles.

Words near critical angle in the dictionary

  1. criths
  2. critic
  3. critical
  4. critical altitude
  5. critical altitudes
  6. critical angle
  7. critical angles
  8. critical apparatus
  9. critical applied linguistics
  10. critical brain hypothesis
  11. critical care

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: critical angle (page history and authors); critical angle (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

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