reflex

CEFRB2

/ˈɹiːflɛks/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A quick, automatic movement or response.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    The ancestor word corresponding to a descendant.

Examples

  • Thank you very much. Thank you for activating my gag reflex.

  • To me helping is a normal thing, a reflex, if you will, like breathing.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /ɹɪˈflɛks/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The descendant of an earlier language element, such as a word or phoneme, in a daughter language.

  2. An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing.

  3. The descendant of anything from an earlier time, such as a cultural myth.

More examples

In context

  • A reflex camera uses a mirror to reflect the image onto a ground-glass viewfinder.

  • If the reflex region is the interior of the angle, the dihedral angle is reflex.

  • For a while, I shall have to make a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand and perform the thousands of little gestures which constitute life on Earth, and then those gestures will become reflexes again.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

When a doctor taps your knee, a blank makes your leg kick out automatically.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Late Latin reflexus, past participle of reflectere (“to bend back”), equivalent to re- + flex. Photography sense is from noun sense meaning “reflection”. Compare English reflect.