reflection

«reflection» in Mova's school dictionary: the picture you see in a mirror, in water or on a shiny… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a reflection, reflections; reflection)

meaning for a pupil

1) A reflection is the picture you see in a mirror, in water or on a shiny surface. tree →

2) In science, reflection is light, sound or heat bouncing back off a surface. tree →

3) In maths, a reflection is a flip of a shape over a line (a mirror line) so it looks like its mirror image. tree →

4) Reflection is also careful thinking about something. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons pupils learn that we see things because light reflects off them, and that smooth shiny surfaces reflect best. In maths, reflection is a transformation, along with rotation and translation, and is linked to symmetry. In school pupils write a «reflection» on what they learned. Phrases: «a reflection in the mirror», «line of reflection», «on reflection», «reflection of light».

examples

• The cat stared at its reflection in the mirror. tree →
• I saw the mountains' reflection in the still lake. tree →
• Draw the reflection of the triangle in the mirror line. tree →
• Reflection of light lets us see the Moon. tree →
• An echo is a reflection of sound. tree →
• On reflection, I think I was unfair. tree →
• Write a short reflection about your science project. tree →
• I have got it all from my reflections and thoughts. tree →

note

Countable (a reflection, reflections) and uncountable (the process, careful thought). Verb: «reflect». In maths a reflection keeps the same size and shape but flips it: each point is the same distance from the mirror line on the other side. Words in a mirror look back-to-front.

In the corpora

• Birds crash into windows because they see reflected trees and sky, and stickers on the glass break up the reflection.
• A legend says Li Bai drowned reaching for the Moon's reflection, but he probably died of illness.
• Videos can be edited, staged or fooled by reflections, so a "100% real ghost" video is not evidence.
• Some cars have a rain sensor that shines invisible light at the windscreen and switches the wipers on when raindrops change the reflection.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «reflection» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.