How to Use refraction in a Sentence

refraction

noun
Definition of refractionnext
  • In the funhouse-mirror refractions of the pool, a woman’s body may be viewed in a new light.
    — Amanda Hess, New York Times, 3 July 2019
  • Cromwell serves as the king’s alter ego, but that’s one refraction among many.
    — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2020
  • In addition to the waves, many boaters fail to anticipate the refraction caused by the wake of the boats in front of them.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 15 July 2021
  • Then a physics lecture on light refraction brought an epiphany — and a change of majors.
    — Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 25 Jan. 2024
  • When white light enters an ice crystal, the light slows down and is bent through a process know as refraction.
    — Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Hirasawa explains that this allows the team to analyze the refraction of the X-rays to pick out the bone.
    — Connor Lynch, Discover Magazine, 20 June 2022
  • The refraction of that bright star’s light by our atmosphere is one of the more esoteric sights in the skies above.
    — Jamie Carter, Forbes, 30 May 2021
  • The trick of the lensmaker’s art is to grind the two surfaces into such shapes that the sum of all this refraction brings the light passing through the lens to a focus.
    — The Economist, 25 July 2019
  • The minerals in the rocks, plus refractions from the sun, create a range of colors under the water, from gold to deep blue.
    — Susan Glaser, cleveland.com, 9 May 2018
  • The blueish color is due to much the same light refraction pattern as that which produces a blue daytime sky here on Earth.
    — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 9 Nov. 2023
  • Changes in the speed of sound (or for that matter light) cause sound (or light) waves to bend, a phenomenon known as refraction.
    — The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
  • The halos form because of refraction, or the bending of waves of light through ice crystals in the shape of hexagonal prisms.
    — Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2020
  • Kids will use prisms, spray bottles, and bubbles to learn about refraction and make rainbows.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 31 May 2023
  • But, ice is less dense than water, and hail doesn’t tend to fall as thickly as rain, so its refraction of cell signal will be less, too.
    — Wes Siler, Outside Online, 20 May 2017
  • In the shadow and the angle the light hits the Earth, a process called Rayleigh scattering occurs, which is basically the refraction of light.
    — Rick Green, courant.com, 19 Nov. 2021
  • The nearly equal hours of daylight and darkness happens because of the refraction of sunlight or the bending of light's rays.
    — Olivia Munson, USA TODAY, 1 May 2023
  • Going to space softens the agonies of the here and now even when the space story is just a refraction of an earthly problem.
    — Lydia Kiesling, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020
  • Their eyes showed 59% less progression away from ideal refraction and 52% less growth of eye length.
    — Fortune, 12 Jan. 2022
  • The change in the signals caused by refraction can be measured and used to derive humidity.
    — Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, WSJ, 25 May 2021
  • The rings are caused by refraction and reflection of sunlight by ice crystals in cirrus clouds.
    — Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 21 Sep. 2020
  • Microwave refraction has been used to detect breast cancers, and Elam and Ljungqvist think it could be applied in still more areas.
    — Nathan Hurst, Smithsonian, 30 Mar. 2017
  • Microwave refraction has been used to detect breast cancers, and Elam and Ljungqvist think it could be applied in still more areas.
    — Nathan Hurst, Smithsonian, 30 Mar. 2017
  • Whatever the case, refraction in all its forms is slated to stay—simply choose whichever hue best suits your mood.
    — Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 1 Oct. 2018
  • The story that follows is a kind of Chaucerian refraction of the vicious military assault that shocked the world in 1989.
    — Washington Post, 11 Aug. 2021
  • This light bending, or refraction, degrades the quality of the image, especially to the left and right of the scanner’s light source.
    — Scientific American, 6 Sep. 2019
  • Their paths are affected by refraction, or the bending of waves, which increases when there is water vapor in the air.
    — Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, WSJ, 25 May 2021
  • Slowing a wave changes its direction, a process called refraction.
    — The Economist, 25 July 2019
  • In certain situations, refraction can focus a huge amount of light on a small area, erasing the need for a giant structure to catch it all.
    — Leila Sloman, Scientific American, 14 Aug. 2019
  • Due to the properties of refraction, these small particles can actually be drawn inward to the focal point of the laser.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 23 Oct. 2017
  • The dataset generated from the study is small, and the study does not try to explain how a stretchy buff could generate more light refraction from particles than no mask at all.
    — Katherine Ellen Foley, Quartz, 12 Aug. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'refraction.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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