lens

/lenz/

Friendly

Word: Lens

Part of Speech: Noun

Basic Definition:

A lens is a piece of transparent material, usually made of glass or plastic, that helps to focus light. It is used in many devices like cameras, glasses, and microscopes. In a more biological sense, the lens is a part of the eye that helps to focus light onto the retina, allowing us to see clearly.

Usage Instructions:

• Everyday Use: When talking about glasses or cameras, you can refer to the lens to describe the part that helps focus the image.
• Biological Context: When discussing how we see, you can mention the lens of the eye.
• Metaphorical Use: You can use "lens" when talking about perspective or understanding, such as "seeing the world through a specific lens."

Examples:

1. Physical Lens: "I need to clean the lens of my camera to take better pictures."
2. Biological Lens: "The lens of the eye changes shape to help us focus on objects at different distances."
3. Metaphorical Lens: "The historian's lens allows us to understand past events in a new way."

Advanced Usage:

• Optical Lens: In physics and optics, a lens can be described as a curved piece of glass or other transparent material that bends light to create images.
• Cinematic Lens: In filmmaking, the type of lens used can alter how a scene is perceived by the audience, affecting depth, focus, and field of view.

Word Variants:

• Lenticular (adjective): Related to or resembling a lens.
• Lenticel (noun): A small opening in the stem of a plant that allows gas exchange, metaphorically similar to a lens in that it allows certain things to pass through.

Different Meanings:

1. Optical Device: A tool used in cameras, microscopes, etc., to create or focus images.
2. Biological Structure: The part of the eye that helps focus light.
3. Metaphorical Concept: A way of looking at or understanding something.

Synonyms:

• Optical Element: A term used in optics for lenses.
• Focusing Device: A more general term that includes lenses and similar tools.
• Perspective: When used metaphorically, it can refer to the viewpoint or angle of understanding.

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs:

• "Through the lens of" (idiom): This phrase is used to indicate the perspective or viewpoint from which something is considered. For example, "We can understand the issue through the lens of social justice."
• "Lens of perception" (phrase): Refers to the way individuals interpret or view experiences or information.

Academic

Noun

1. electronic equipment that uses a magnetic or electric field in order to focus a beam of electrons
2. biconvex transparent body situated behind the iris in the eye; its role (along with the cornea) is to focuses light on the retina
3. (metaphor) a channel through which something can be seen or understood
   • the writer is the lens through which history can be seen
4. genus of small erect or climbing herbs with pinnate leaves and small inconspicuous white flowers and small flattened pods: lentils
5. a transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images

Synonyms

• electron lens
• crystalline lens
• lens of the eye
• Lens
• genus Lens
• lense
• lens system