Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In optics, pertaining to a holophote; reflecting or refracting rays of light in the desired direction without perceptible loss: as, a holophotal reflector.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Opt.) Causing no loss of light; -- applied to reflectors which throw back the rays of light without perceptible loss.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Causing no loss of light; applied to reflectors which throw back the rays of light without perceptible loss.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek, meaning "whole light".

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Examples

  • New apparatus for lights in new situations was continually being designed with the same unwearied search after perfection, the same nice ingenuity of means; and though the holophotal revolving light perhaps still remains his most elegant contrivance, it is difficult to give it the palm over the much later condensing system, with its thousand possible modifications.

    Memories and Portraits 2005

  • Difficult it must have been to Louis—now grown too large for the childhood name of “Smout”—but he applied himself diligently to holophotal lights and louvre-boarded screens for optical instruments.

    Life of Robert Louis Stevenson by Alexander Harvey 1913

  • I seldom say a harsh word to any one, but I was not master of myself then, and I spoke right out and called him an anisodactylous plesiosaurian conchyliaceous Ornithorhyneus, and rotten to the heart with holophotal subterranean extemporaneousness.

    Mark Twain`s speeches; with an introduction by William Dean Howells. 1910

  • He read it: "Considerations concerning the alleged subterranean holophotal extemporaneousness of the conchyliaceous superimbrication of the Ornithorhyncus, as foreshadowed by the unintelligibility of its plesiosaurian anisodactylous aspects."

    Mark Twain`s speeches; with an introduction by William Dean Howells. 1910

  • One day there came a note from the editor requiring me to write ten pages on this revolting text: "Considerations concerning the alleged subterranean holophotal extemporaneousness of the conchyliaceous superimbrication of the Ornithorhyncus, as foreshadowed by the unintelligibility of its plesiosaurian anisodactylous aspects."

    Mark Twain`s speeches; with an introduction by William Dean Howells. 1910

  • One day there came a note from the editor requiring me to write ten pages -- on this revolting text: "Considerations concerning the alleged subterranean holophotal extemporaneousness of the conchyliaceous superimbrication of the Ornithorhyncus, as foreshadowed by the unintelligibility of its plesiosaurian anisodactylous aspects."

    Mark Twain's Speeches Mark Twain 1872

  • He read it: "Considerations concerning the alleged subterranean holophotal extemporaneousness of the conchyliaceous superimbrication of the

    Mark Twain's Speeches Mark Twain 1872

Comments

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  • Her vanity's said to be total,
    Though evidence is anecdotal.
    To capture her glory
    (So goes the story)
    Her mirrors must be holophotal.

    September 4, 2015