lens
/lɛnz/
lens noun: an object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
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Noun
lens (plural lenses or (obsolete) lens or (rare) lentes)
- An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
- Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field.2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist
- A device which focuses or defocuses other waves or radiation, such as microwave radiation, electron beams, sound waves (acoustic lenses), or explosions (explosive lenses).
- A convex shape bounded by two circular arcs, joined at their endpoints, the corresponding concave shape being a lune.
- The transparent crystalline structure in the eye.
- The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist
- A body of rock, ice, or water shaped like a convex lens.
- A convex layer of fresh groundwater that floats above the denser saltwater, usually found on small coral or limestone islands and atolls.
- Synonyms:
- freshwater lens, Ghyben-Herzberg lens
- A construct used in statically-typed functional programming languages to access nested data structures.
- A way of looking, literally or figuratively, at something.
- If "the public looks at the condition of America's children largely through a negative lens," worries Child Trends[…], "it may be more difficult to […] promote child well-being."2004 April 11, Ann Hulbert, “Are the Kids All Right?”, in The New York Times Magazine, page 11
- No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.2023 April 26, Benjamin Lee, quoting Steven Spielberg, “Steven Spielberg: ‘No film should be revised’ based on modern sensitivity”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Verb
lens (third-person singular simple present lenses, present participle lensing, simple past and past participle lensed)
- To film, shoot.
- It’s set in an anonymous, upper-middle-class suburb, lensed in the generic gunmetal gray that will one day appear as dated as the fuzzy outlines of ’80s direct-to-video horror movies.2020 May 7, Katie Rife, “If you’re looking to jump in your seat, make a playdate with Z”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 16 May 2020
- To become thinner towards the edges.
Proper noun capitalized: Lens
Lens
- A municipality in Hainaut, Belgium.
- A commune in Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France, France.
- A municipality in Valais canton, Switzerland.
lens meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
lens in Hindi
- object focusing or defocusing the light passing through it
- लेंस lens
lens in Tamil
- வில்லை
lens in Marathi
- लेन्स, लेंस
lens in Urdu
- object focusing or defocusing the light passing through it
- مَنْظُور manzūr, عَدْسَہ 'adsa
More languagesFewer languages
- lens in Bengali
- লেন্স lenśo
- lens in Telugu
- కటకము kaṭakamu
- lens in Malayalam
- കാചം
- lens in Kannada
- ಸೇರ್ಕನ್ನಡಿ, ಮಸೂರ, ಯವ, ಭೂತಗನ್ನಡಿ
- lens in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ੀਸ਼ਾ śīśā
- lens in Gujarati
- લેન્સ, લેન્સ લગાવવું, લેન્સ લગાવવી
- lens in Odia
- ଲେନ୍ସ, ଲେନ୍ସ୍
- lens in Nepali
- लेन्स, लेंस
- lens in Tagalog
- paningob, lente
- lens in Arabic
- عَدَسَة ʕadasa, عَدَسَة اَلْعَيْن ʕadasat al-ʕayn
- lens in Malay
- kanta, lensa
- lens in Indonesian
- lensa, kanta
- lens in Persian
- عدسی 'adasi
- lens in Thai
- เลนส์ len, แว่น wɛ̂n, แก้วตา gɛ̂ɛo-dtaa
- lens in Vietnamese
- thấu kính
- lens in Myanmar
- မှန်ဘီလူး hmanbhilu:
Examples of lens in a sentence
- Corrective lenses compensate for the excessive positive diopters of the myopic eye.
- The working minimum focus distance is the distance from the closest focusable subject to the lens.
- Plano lenses may be used to protect the eyes from ultraviolet light.
Synonyms of lens
Forms of lens
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lenses |
| alternative misspelling | lense |
| plural (obsolete) | lens |
| plural (rare) | lentes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lenses |
| present participle | lensing |
| past participle | lensed |
| past | lensed |
Origin of lens
Borrowed from Latin lēns (“lentil”), with Medieval Latin later taking on the sense of “lens”, a semantic loan from Arabic عَدَسَة (ʕadasa, “lentil; optic lens”); the similar shape is the common factor.
Words formed from lens
- achromatic lens
- Barlow lens
- best form lens
- burning lens
- capsule of lens
- circle contact lens
- circle lens
- close-up lens
- Coddington lens
- contact lens
- converging lens
- convex lens
- corrective lens
- corrugated lens
- crystalline lens
- delens
- digital single-lens reflex
- digital single-lens reflex camera
- dual-lens reflex
- echelon lens
- explosive lens
- eye lens
- field lens
- fish-eye lens
- fisheye lens
- Fresnel lens
- goniolens
- gravitational lens
- hyperlens
- immersion lens
- kit lens
- lensatic
- lens blank
- lens board
- lens brush
- lens cap
- lensectomy
- lenser
- lens flare
- lensfree
- lenshound
- lensless
- lenslet
- lenslike
- lens louse
- lensmaker
- lensmaking
- lensman
- lensmeter
- lensoid
- lensoidal
- lensometry
- lenswoman
- lenticel
- lenticular
- lenticule
- lentil
- lentoid
- long-focus lens
- long lens
Phrases with lens
- lens caps
- lens lice
- spot lens
- zoom lens
- macro lens
- prime lens
- water lens
- lens blanks
- lens boards
- lens flares
- normal lens
- ocular lens
24 more phrasesFewer phrases
- pebble lens
- pickup lens
- lens brushes
- pancake lens
- Petzval lens
- magnetic lens
- shot the lens
- standard lens
- objective lens
- shoot the lens
- telephoto lens
- varifocal lens
- freshwater lens
- shoots the lens
- wide-angle lens
- multiplying lens
- twin lens reflex
- narrow-angle lens
- shooting the lens
- Mediterranean lens
- single lens reflex
- Ghyben-Herzberg lens
- single lens reflexes
- telephotographic lens
Words that rhyme with lens
Questions about lens
- What does lens mean?
- Lens means an object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
- What is lens in Hindi?
- Lens in Hindi is लेंस (lens). See Lens meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lens?
- Lens can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce lens?
- Lens is pronounced /lɛnz/.
- What is the plural of lens?
- The plural of lens is lenses.
Words near lens in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lens (page history and authors); Lens (page history and authors); lens (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lens (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); కటకము (Telugu) (page history and authors); lens (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lens (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸ਼ੀਸ਼ਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); lens (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lens (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); lens (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lens.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lens.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lens. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.