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spectrum
Spectrum is the range of colors of wavelength energy sent out from a light source when viewed through a prism.
(noun)An example of a spectrum is a rainbow.
Spectrum is a broad range of related ideas, qualities or activities.
(noun)An example of a spectrum is a group of activities used for teaching someone how to play basketball.
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See spectrum in Webster's New World College Dictionary
- the series of colored bands dispersed and arranged in the order of their respective wavelengths by the passage of white light through a prism or other dispersing device and shading continuously from red (produced by the longest wave visible) through violet (produced by the shortest): the six main colors of the spectrum are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, with a seventh color (indigo) sometimes specified, between blue and violet
- the intensity of any radiation or motion displayed as a function of frequency, or wavelength
- an afterimage
- a continuous range or entire extent: a wide spectrum of opinion
- radio spectrum
- electromagnetic spectrum
Origin: ModL, special use (by Sir Isaac Newton, 1671) of L spectrum: see specter
See spectrum in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun pl. spec·tra (-trə) or spec·trums
- Physics The distribution of a characteristic of a physical system or phenomenon, especially:a. The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, as by an incandescent body, arranged in order of wavelengths.b. The distribution of atomic or subatomic particles in a system, as in a magnetically resolved molecular beam, arranged in order of masses.
- A graphic or photographic representation of such a distribution.
- a. A range of values of a quantity or set of related quantities.b. A broad sequence or range of related qualities, ideas, or activities: the whole spectrum of 20th-century thought.
Origin:
Origin: Latin, appearance
Origin: , from specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots
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