Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
lens Variant:
also lense /'lenz/ Function:
noun 1 : a curved piece of glass or plastic used singly or combined ineyeglasses or an optical instrument (as a microscope) for forming an image
2 : a device for directing or focusing radiation other than light (as sound waves, radio microwaves, orelectrons)
3 : a highly transparent biconvex lens-shaped or nearly spherical body in the eye that focuses light rays entering the eye typically onto the retina, lies immediatelybehind the pupil, is made up of slender curved rod-shaped ectodermal cells in concentric lamellae surrounded by a tenuous mesoblastic capsule, and alters its focal length by becoming more or lessspherical in response to the action of the ciliary muscle on a peripheral suspensory ligament —
lensed adjective —
lens·less adjective