lexis4u: Scientific Terms Related to Colours

Thematic Vocabulary Unit Nº 271 v.02

electromagnetic radiation |n| a kind of radiation including visible light, radio waves, gamma rays, and X-rays, in which electric and magnetic fields vary simultaneously.
chromatic |n| able to refract light without spectral colour separation.
"Chromatic lens."
spectrum |n| |pl: spectra| a band of colours produced by separation of the components of light by their different degrees of refraction according to wavelength, e.g. in a rainbow.
"Red and violet are at opposite ends of the spectrum."
spectrum colours |n| they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
visible spectrum |n| the distribution of colours produced when light is dispersed by a prism.
"Beyond the red end of the visible light spectrum is infrared."
wavelength |n| the distance between one peak or crest of a wave of light, heat, or other energy and the next corresponding peak or crest.
"These wavelengths correspond to red in the visible spectrum."

Chroma

chroma |n| purity or intensity of color.
"The guppy is sexually dichromatic, with males being genetically polymorphic for color patches that vary in hue, chroma , reflectivity, size, number, and location on their body."
achromatic 1 |adj| without color.
"Achromatic gloom."
achromatic 2 |adj| relating to, employing, or denoting lenses that transmit light without separating it into constituent colors.
"The modern achromatic compound microscope was invented in 1878, and it was this instrument that added the extra dimension of the microscopic study of tissues to anatomical teaching."
monochromatic |adj| containing or using only one color.
"Monochromatic light."
chromatic |n| of, relating to, or produced by color.
"In the hands of the Latin American magical realist, Gauguin's story has been transmuted into a lush story of frenzy, in vivid chromatic colours."
polychromatic |adj| of two or more colors; multicolored.
"All around the main concourse there is a polychromatic array of multicultural mixed sex, mixed aged groups doing their own thing."

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