Word.ws English Dictionary

phosphene

phosphene noun: a sensation of lights induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation (rather than optical) of the retina or visual cortex, or by random firing of cells in the visual system.

phosphene: a sensation of lights induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation (rather than...
Image: Al2, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

phosphene (plural phosphenes)

  1. A sensation of lights induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation (rather than optical) of the retina or visual cortex, or by random firing of cells in the visual system.

Forms of phosphene

pluralphosphenes

Origin of phosphene

From French phosphène, from Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs, “light”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “to appear, shine”).

Words formed from phosphene

Questions about phosphene

What does phosphene mean?
Phosphene means a sensation of lights induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation (rather than optical) of the retina or visual cortex, or by random firing of cells in the visual system.
What part of speech is phosphene?
Phosphene is a noun.
What is the plural of phosphene?
The plural of phosphene is phosphenes.

Words near phosphene in the dictionary

  1. phosphaturic
  2. phosphazene
  3. phosphazenes
  4. phosphazine
  5. phosphazines
  6. phosphene
  7. phosphenes
  8. phosphenium
  9. phospheniums
  10. phosphepane
  11. phosphepanes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phosphene (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: “phosphene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phosphene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.