camera
Pluralcameras
- 1A device for taking still photographs or recording moving pictures.
The photographer adjusted the camera before the shoot.
High-speed cameras can capture thousands of images per second.
UsageOften named by its use: a security camera, a movie camera. Being filmed is on camera.
- 2The viewpoint from which a three-dimensional game or simulation is seen.
Players can rotate the camera freely to survey the battlefield.
A poorly placed camera made the platforming sections frustrating.
Similarview, viewpoint, perspective
Note
Game designers kept the physics of the photographer's device when they took the word. Their camera is something that moves, follows and can get stuck. Patrick O'Luanaigh describes the camera that "flies up above the skater" mid-jump, and Tom Meigs warns of "camera problems" in third-person games with tight spaces. In this field, the view is discussed as an object that can be placed, steered and fixed.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Patrick O'Luanaigh describes a camera flying above a skater during a jump; Wiktionary reproduces this wording under his name and Game Design Complete. en.wiktionary.org
- Tom Meigs warns about camera problems in third-person games with enclosed or tight spaces; Wiktionary reproduces this warning under his name and Ultimate game design: building game worlds. en.wiktionary.org
- 3A judge's private chamber, now found almost only in the phrase in camera, meaning in private rather than in open court.
The sensitive testimony was heard in camera, away from the public gallery.
Counsel asked the court to sit in camera while the point of law was argued.
UsageDo not confuse in camera (in private) with on camera (being filmed).
Similarchambers
Note
The courtroom keeps the Latin "chamber" intact, and this sense is best known through the phrase in camera. A hearing held in camera takes place in private, with the public and the press excluded.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The legal expression preserves Latin camera, meaning chamber. en.wikipedia.org
- In camera means in private, with the public excluded; selected journalists may sometimes be admitted. The Court of Appeal permitted accredited journalists to attend parts of a trial conducted in camera. judiciary.uk
Less common meaning
- 4A room roofed with a vault, or arched ceiling.
Note
Here the word stays closest to its root. The Greek kamára behind the photographic camera meant a vault, and this sense still names a room by the shape of its roof. Outside architectural and historical writing, readers will almost always take camera to mean the device.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The vaulted-room sense preserves the meaning of the Greek ancestor closely. en.wiktionary.org
- Photographic camera ultimately derives from Greek kamára through Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- Greek kamára meant a vault. en.wiktionary.org
- Camera has a sense denoting a vaulted room. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
A learned borrowing from Latin camera ("chamber"), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, "vaulted room"), and so a doublet of chamber. The device sense is short for camera obscura ("dark chamber"), a darkened room or box that projects an outside scene through a small hole or lens, from which the photographic camera developed.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- Camera is a learned borrowing from Latin camera, meaning chamber. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin camera derives from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára), meaning vaulted room. en.wiktionary.org
- Camera and chamber are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- The device sense of camera is shortened from camera obscura. en.wiktionary.org
- Camera obscura means dark chamber. en.wiktionary.org
- A camera obscura is a darkened room or box projecting an outside scene through a small hole or lens. en.wikipedia.org
- The photographic camera developed from the camera obscura. blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk