English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Middle French reflexion, reflection, and its source Late Latin reflexio, from the participle stem of reflectō. The current spelling is influenced by reflect.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: re‧flec‧tion
  • Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

Noun edit

 
A water reflection - meanings 2 and 3

reflection (countable and uncountable, plural reflections)

  1. The act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.
  2. The property of a propagated wave being thrown back from a surface (such as a mirror).
  3. Something, such as an image, that is reflected.
    The dog barked at his own reflection in the mirror.
  4. Careful thought or consideration.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:consideration
    After careful reflection, I have decided not to vote for that proposition.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections.
  5. A representative manifestation or outcome of a condition, trend or trait.
    Our recent results are a reflection of the progress we've made as a team.
    • 2021 November 11, “When a Logo Doesn’t Risk It All: Meta’s Brand Is Designed for Unknown Worlds”, in The New York Times[1], archived from the original on 2023-08-04:
      Zuckerberg said last month that the name change was a reflection of how much Facebook had evolved.
    1. (followed by on) Used to make an implied criticism.
      It is a reflection on his character that he never came back to see them.
  6. (computing) The process or mechanism of determining the capabilities of an object at run-time.
    • 2002, Java Enterprise Best Practices, O'Reilly:
      DynamicMBeanFacade uses Java's reflection API to introspect the managed resource and discover data type information for attributes.
  7. (anatomy) The folding of a part; a fold.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also edit