lens
/lɛnz/noun, verb
lens is spelled L-E-N-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lens means “An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lens is lenses; Wiktionary also lists lentes (rare).
How many letters and syllables are in lens?
| Letters | 4: L-E-N-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,407th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is lens?
Lens appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce lens?
- /lɛnz/
Lens has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-lens.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of lens
- lenses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- lentes plural, rare
- lensing participle, present
- lensed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lens mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
- 2
A device which focuses or defocuses other waves or radiation, such as microwave radiation, electron beams, sound waves (acoustic lenses), or explosions (explosive lenses).
- 3
A convex shape bounded by two circular arcs, joined at their endpoints, the corresponding concave shape being a lune.
- 4
The transparent crystalline structure in the eye.
- 5
A body of rock, ice, or water shaped like a convex lens.
- 6
A convex layer of fresh groundwater that floats above the denser saltwater, usually found on small coral or limestone islands and atolls.
- 7
A construct used in statically-typed functional programming languages to access nested data structures.
- 8
A way of looking, literally or figuratively, at something.
verb
- 1
To film, shoot.
- 2
To become thinner towards the edges.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lens in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lentille , cristallin , filmer |
| German | Linse |
| Portuguese | lente , cristalino , lentilha |
| Spanish | lente, luneta, cristal, luna , cristalino |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lens come from?
Borrowed from Latin lēns (“lentil”), with Medieval Latin later taking on the sense of “lens”, a semantic loan from Arabic عَدَسَة (ʕadasa, “lentil; optic lens”); the similar shape is the common factor.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).