Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See the quotation.

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

  • noun The quality or degree of being refractive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the physical property of a medium as determined by its index of refraction

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The refractivity, however, shows a greater difference; for the admixture of helium and neon in the crude sample lowers the refractivity from 0.9665 for the pure gas to 0.961 or 0.960.

    Sir William Ramsay - Nobel Lecture 1966

  • Boyle's law revealed themselves, and further, investigations of the effect of pressure on the refractivity of water, the effect of pressure on the resistance of an electric conductor.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1946 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • In other words, the genome regions with the highest refractive index - undoubtedly enhanced by the proteins bound to the repetitive DNA - are concentrated in the interior, followed by the sequences with the next highest level of refractivity, to prevent against the scattering of light.

    Evolution News & Views 2009

  • The measure of this refractivity -- how much the atmosphere bends radio waves -- is called a "K-factor."

    WBAY Action 2 News 2009

  • I ineluctably stygian to the benefice refractivity and nonglutinous up arena quip in eucaryote for two dysgenesis.

    Rational Review 2009

  • Its pronounced refractivity, and the ease with which it may be worked, makes bakelite a favourite substitute for amber (Ger.

    Synthetic Tannins Georg Grasser

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