| Learning / English Dictionary |
REFLECTION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The image of something as reflected by a mirror (or other reflective material)
Example:
he studied his reflection in the mirror
Synonyms:
reflection; reflexion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
icon; ikon; image; picture (a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A likeness in which left and right are reversed
Synonyms:
mirror image; reflection; reflexion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
alikeness; likeness; similitude (similarity in appearance or character or nature between persons or things)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The ability to reflect beams or rays
Synonyms:
reflection; reflectivity; reflexion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
physical property (any property used to characterize matter and energy and their interactions)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reflection"):
echo; replication; reverberation; sound reflection (the repetition of a sound resulting from reflection of the sound waves)
echo (a reflected television or radio or radar beam)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A calm, lengthy, intent consideration
Synonyms:
contemplation; musing; reflection; reflexion; rumination; thoughtfulness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
consideration (the process of giving careful thought to something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reflection"):
cogitation; study (attentive consideration and meditation)
meditation; speculation (continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature)
meditation ((religion) contemplation of spiritual matters (usually on religious or philosophical subjects))
introspection; self-contemplation; self-examination (the contemplation of your own thoughts and desires and conduct)
retrospect (contemplation of things past)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A remark expressing careful consideration
Synonyms:
observation; reflection; reflexion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
comment; input; remark (a statement that expresses a personal opinion or belief or adds information)
Instance hyponyms:
Parkinson's law (C. Northcote Parkinson's cynical observation that the number of subordinates in an organization will increase linearly regardless of the amount of work to be done)
Parkinson's law (C. Northcote Parkinson's cynical observation that work will expand so as to fill the time available for its completion)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Expression without words
Example:
the pulse is a reflection of the heart's condition
Synonyms:
expression; manifestation; reflection; reflexion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
demo; demonstration (a visual presentation showing how something works)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reflection"):
lamentation; mourning (the passionate and demonstrative activity of expressing grief)
act (a manifestation of insincerity)
blowup; ebullition; effusion; gush; outburst (an unrestrained expression of emotion)
Sense 7
Meaning:
The phenomenon of a propagating wave (light or sound) being thrown back from a surface
Synonyms:
reflection; reflexion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
physical phenomenon (a natural phenomenon involving the physical properties of matter and energy)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reflection"):
flare (am unwanted reflection in an optical system (or the fogging of an image that is caused by such a reflection))
interreflection (reciprocal reflection between two reflecting surfaces)
virtual image (a reflected optical image (as seen in a plane mirror))
zodiacal light (a luminous tract in the sky; a reflection of sunlight from cosmic dust in the plane of the ecliptic; visible just before sunrise and just after sunset)
Sense 8
Meaning:
(mathematics) a transformation in which the direction of one axis is reversed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("reflection" is a kind of...):
transformation ((mathematics) a function that changes the position or direction of the axes of a coordinate system)
Domain category:
math; mathematics; maths (a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement)
Context examples:
She can have no idea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
I never suffer a word to pass that may look like reflection, or possibly give the least offence, even to those who are most ready to take it.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
No reflection was to be allowed now: not one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
These ruddy spots must be the reflection of fires within the caves—fires which could only be lit by the hand of man.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As well as emission and reflection, absorption takes place in this region.
(Stellar Nursery Blooms into View, ESO)
It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge, said he, for I believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda, there is no other specimen in Europe.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
No reflection on you, doctor, you understand; but he must have the advantage of every chance.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
She was first called to observe and approve him farther, by a reflection which Elinor chanced one day to make on the difference between him and his sister.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Your reflection, though profound, had already crossed my mind.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The initial portion of the P wave is largely a reflection of right atrial depolarization and the terminal portion reflects depolarization of the left atrium.
(P Wave, NCI Thesaurus)
