Refracts

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To change the direction of light or waves as they travel through differing materials based on density variations
2. To bend and redirect waves, like light, when they move from one medium to another with different optical properties
3. Alters the path of light or waves by bending them as they move through materials with different densities

Etymology: "Refracts" is the third-person singular form of "refract", so its history is that of the verb itself. The verb comes from Latin "refrangere", whose past participle "refractum" gave English its root. The Latin combined "re-", meaning "again" or "back", with "frangere", meaning "to break". The literal sense is therefore "to break back" or "to break up", which makes sense once you picture a stick that looks snapped where it enters water. That image is the heart of the story. Light passing from air into water or glass changes direction, so an object under water appears bent or broken at the surface. The Latin verb described a physical breaking, and English later applied it to this optical bending. The same "break" root turns up in "fragment" and "fracture", which share the Latin "frangere" and its family of forms.

Synonyms: bends, deflects, diverts, distorts, alters

Antonyms: straightens, aligns