Definitions for: Lens


[n] a transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images
[n] electronic equipment that uses a magnetic or electric field in order to focus a beam of electrons
[n] biconvex transparent body situated behind the iris in the eye; it focuses light waves on the retina
[n] genus of small erect or climbing herbs with pinnate leaves and small inconspicuous white flowers and small flattened pods: lentils



Webster (1913) Definition: Lens (l[e^]nz), n.; pl. Lenses (-[e^]z). [L. lens a
lentil. So named from the resemblance in shape of a double
convex lens to the seed of a lentil. Cf. Lentil.] (Opt.)
A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground with
two opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one
curved and the other plane, and commonly used, either singly
or combined, in optical instruments, for changing the
direction of rays of light, and thus magnifying objects, or
otherwise modifying vision. In practice, the curved surfaces
are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical, or of some
other figure. Lenses

Note: Of spherical lenses, there are six varieties, as shown
in section in the figures herewith given: viz., a
plano-concave; b double-concave; c plano-convex; d
double-convex; e converging concavo-convex, or
converging meniscus; f diverging concavo-convex, or
diverging meniscus.

Crossed lens (Opt.), a double-convex lens with one radius
equal to six times the other.

Crystalline lens. (Anat.) See Eye.

Fresnel lens (Opt.), a compound lens formed by placing
around a central convex lens rings of glass so curved as
to have the same focus; used, especially in lighthouses,
for concentrating light in a particular direction; -- so
called from the inventor.

Multiplying lens or glass (Opt.), a lens one side of
which is plane and the other convex, but made up of a
number of plane faces inclined to one another, each of
which presents a separate image of the object viewed
through it, so that the object is, as it were, multiplied.


Polyzonal lens. See Polyzonal.

Synonyms: crystalline lens, electron lens, genus Lens, lens system

See Also: anastigmat, anastigmatic lens, camera lens, compound lens, concave lens, condenser, contact, contact lens, converging lens, convex lens, crown lens, diverging lens, electronic equipment, eye, eyeglass, eyepiece, Fresnel lens, intraocular lens, lens capsule, monocle, object glass, objective, ocular, oculus, optic, optical condenser, optical device, optical instrument, optical lens, organ, Papilionoideae, peeper, rosid dicot genus, subfamily Papilionoideae

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