spectrum
- 1A full range of related things, stretching from one extreme to its opposite.
Like a slider that can stop anywhere between two ends, not just at the edges.
Political opinions cover a wide spectrum, from far left to far right.
Her taste in music sits at one end of the spectrum.
Similarrange, gamut, continuum, scale, span
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- 2The band of colors that light splits into, like the colors in a rainbow.
Like a rainbow, where the colors line up in order from red to violet.
A prism splits sunlight into a spectrum of colors.
You can see the whole spectrum in a rainbow after the rain.
Similarrainbow
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- 3A way of describing autism that covers a wide range of traits and abilities.
Children on the spectrum often learn in their own different ways.
Being on the spectrum means everyone's experience is a little different.
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- 4The pattern of light a material gives off or takes in when energy reaches it.
Like a fingerprint: each material leaves its own unique pattern.
Each element gives off its own special spectrum of light.
Scientists read the spectrum to find out what a gas is made of.
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- 5A picture you still seem to see after you shut your eyes.
Like the bright shape you still see after a camera flash goes off.
When he closed his eyes, the bright window left a glowing spectrum behind.
The camera flash left a spectrum floating in front of her eyes.
Similarafterimage
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- 6In math, the set of special values, called eigenvalues, that belong to a matrix.
The spectrum of this matrix is just two numbers.
Students learned to find the spectrum of a small matrix by hand.
Similareigenspectrum
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- 7In advanced math, a set of special number values tied to a kind of function called an operator.
The spectrum of this operator includes every value between zero and one.
Mathematicians study the spectrum to understand how an operator behaves.
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- 8In advanced math, a special object built from a number system called a ring that lets people study it using shapes.
The spectrum of a ring helps mathematicians turn algebra into geometry.
Each point in the spectrum stands for a prime ideal of the ring.
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Less common meaning
- 9A ghost or spirit that appears to someone.
Like a ghost in an old ghost story.
The frightened maid swore she had seen a spectrum in the hall.
Villagers believed a pale spectrum wandered the old churchyard at night.
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Practice
Can you tell the meanings of spectrum apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Latin spectrum, meaning "appearance" or "image," from a verb meaning "to look at."