iris
Meanings
noun
- A plant of the genus Iris, common in the northern hemisphere, and generally having attractive blooms (See Iris (plant) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).
- The contractile membrane perforated by the pupil, which adjusts to control the amount of light reaching the retina, and which forms the colored portion of the eye (See Iris (anatomy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).
- A diaphragm used to regulate the size of a hole, especially as a way of controlling the amount of light reaching a lens.
- A rainbow, or other colourful refraction of light.
- A constricted opening in the path inside a waveguide, used to form a resonator.
- The inner circle of an oscillated color spot.
verb
- To open or close in the manner of an iris.
- To cause (something) to shine with the colours of the rainbow; to make iridescent.
name
- A messenger of the gods, and goddess of rainbows.
- A female given name from Ancient Greek; a flower name used since the end of the 19th century.
- 7 Iris, a main belt asteroid.
noun
- plural of IRI
noun
- Acronym of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Ancient Greek ϝῖρῐς (wîrĭs) Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris)bor. Latin irisbor. English iris From Middle English iris, from Latin īris, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”). Presuming an earlier form *ϝῖρις (*wîris), possibly from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *w(e)ih₁-ro- (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”). If so, it would be cognate to English wire.
Synonyms
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This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.