English Explanatory Dictionary

vergence

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The simultaneous turning of both eyes when focusing.
  2. A measure of convergence or divergence of rays.
  3. The direction of the overturned component of an asymmetric fold.

Pronunciation

/ˈvɜː(ɹ)dʒəns/

Word forms

vergence vergences

Etymology

From verge (“tend, incline”, from Latin vergere) + -ence, synonym of earlier (1660s) vergency (the equivalent of French vergence). Coined as a technical term in ophthalmology, as a hypernym of convergence and divergence, in 1902. The sense of the numeric quantity in geometric optics was introduced, from use of the term in physiological optics, in the 1920s.

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