SPECTRAL

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resembling or characteristic of a phantom

Example:

spiritual tappings at a seance

Synonyms:

apparitional; ghostlike; ghostly; phantasmal; spectral; spiritual

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

supernatural (not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to a spectrum

Example:

spectral analysis

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Pertainym:

spectrum (an ordered array of the components of an emission or wave)

Derivation:

spectrum (a broad range of related objects or values or qualities or ideas or activities)

spectrum (an ordered array of the components of an emission or wave)

Credits

Context examples:

No one has taken visible-wavelength spectra of Europa before that had this sort of spatial and spectral resolution.

(Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa, NASA)

After conjugation of the captured analyte to the bead, the beads are differentiated by their size and their spectral signature, allowing quantitation of analyte concentration in the sample.

(Multi-Analyte Fluorescent Detection, NCI Thesaurus)

Near the top of the climb, the ChemCam instrument fired its laser at the target Elk, and took a spectral reading of its composition.

(Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock, NASA)

A curious aspect of the detection is that the areas showing the most obvious water ice spectral signatures correspond to areas that are bright red in recently released color images.

(New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto, NASA)

I do not forget one night, when I should have been asleep, of lying on the forecastle-head and gazing down at the spectral ripple of foam thrust aside by the Ghost’s forefoot.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A sterile solution of a nontoxic tricarbocyanine dye with a peak spectral absorption at 790 nm, with application in determining cardiac output, hepatic function, liver blood flow, as well as ophthalmic angiography.

(Indocyanine Green Solution, NCI Thesaurus)

The NuSTAR spectral data reveal that titanium-44 is moving away from us with a velocity of 1.6 million mph (2.6 million kilometers per hour).

(Star Explosion is Lopsided, NASA)

However, even now, the majority of spectrometers are based around principles similar to what Newton demonstrated with his prism: the spatial separation of light into different spectral components.

(Nanowires replace Newton’s famous glass prism, University of Cambridge)

The images in this mosaic were taken with the ISS narrow-angle camera, using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 938 nanometers.

(Cassini's Final View of Titan's Northern Lakes and Seas, NASA)

The spectral signatures is from hydrated minerals called perchlorates.