Aberration
[,æbə'reɪʃ(ə)n] or ['æbə'reʃən]
Definition
(noun.) an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image.
(noun.) a disorder in one's mental state.
Typed by Erica--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act of wandering; deviation, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type.
(n.) A partial alienation of reason.
(n.) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4'', and in the latter, to 0.3''. Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth.
(n.) The convergence to different foci, by a lens or mirror, of rays of light emanating from one and the same point, or the deviation of such rays from a single focus; called spherical aberration, when due to the spherical form of the lens or mirror, such form giving different foci for central and marginal rays; and chromatic aberration, when due to different refrangibilities of the colored rays of the spectrum, those of each color having a distinct focus.
(n.) The passage of blood or other fluid into parts not appropriate for it.
(n.) The producing of an unintended effect by the glancing of an instrument, as when a shot intended for A glances and strikes B.
Typist: Millie
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Deviation, divergence, wandering, rambling, departure.[2]. Irregularity, eccentricity, singularity, peculiarity, strangeness, unconformity, anomaly, abnormity, monstrosity.[3]. Illusion, delusion, hallucination, monomania, self-deception.
Typed by Eugenia
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Wandering, divergence, deviation, desultoriness, rambling, disconnectedness,hallucination, inconsecutiveness, idiocy, insanity, exception, abnormity
ANT:Uniformity, consecutiveness, continuity, connectedness, principle, law, order,type, norm, project, line, tenor, progression, rectilinearity, regularity
Editor: William
Examples
- It has gradually augmented, until it assumes the appearance of aberration of intellect. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- The correction for the aberration of light is said by Muller not to be perfect even in that most perfect organ, the human eye. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- No explanation save mental aberration can cover the facts. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Concussion of the brain, superinducing total mental aberration. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- He was a very pleasant fellow but with bad political aberrations. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Have those gentle eyes, those channels of the soul lost their meaning, or do they only in their glare disclose the horrible tale of its aberrations? Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Edited by Elvis