Reflector
noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Something which reflects heat, light or sound, especially something having a reflecting surface.
"Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,[…], and the light of the reflector fell full upon her."
- 2 optical telescope consisting of a large concave mirror that produces an image that is magnified by the eyepiece wordnet
- 3 A reflecting telescope.
- 4 device that reflects radiation wordnet
- 5 A small, often red, reflecting disk on the rear of a vehicle or bicycle that reflects the headlights of other vehicles.
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- 6 A safety reflector.
- 7 One who reflects on something; one who thinks or considers at length.
"Most reflectors on leadership are comfortable thinking of "ethical" and "unethical" as modifiers of leadership."
- 8 Something that is reflective (indicative) of something else.
"The biography is an enormously powerful reflector of mainstream values: it is a statement that this person is someone, or did something, worth writing about. Similarly, because the biographer has access to myriads of details about her or his subject, what gets full exposure and what gets swept under the carpet can be more indicative of the biographer's values (and the society that instilled them) than of the actual subject's life."
- 9 A pattern which can change the direction and/or offset of an oncoming spaceship without being destroyed.
Example
More examples"Venus is referred to as the Evening Star because it is the brightest planet that can be viewed from Earth. Its thick cloud cover is an excellent reflector of the Sun's light."
Etymology
From reflect + -or.
Related phrases
More for "reflector"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.