Ultraviolet Meaning
/ˌʌltɹəˈvaɪələt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf electromagnetic radiation beyond (higher in frequency than) light visible to the human eye; radiation with wavelengths from 380 to 10 nanometres.
adjRelating to very high energies or very small distances or time spans.
Sentence Examples
Ultraviolet rays are harmful to us.
Ultraviolet rays can cause skin cancer.
He put on sunglasses to protect his eyes from ultraviolet rays.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ light from the sun can cause skin cancer if you are not careful.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It is very important to wear sunscreen to protect your skin from the harmful ____ rays of the hot summer sun today.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Latin ūls Proto-Indo-European *-teros? Latin -ter Old Latin -ād Latin -ā Latin ultrābor. English ultra- Latin viola Old French -ette Old French violettebor. Middle English violet English violet English ultraviolet From ultra- (“beyond”) + violet (“violet”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Micron said in a statement that it would bring extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology to Japan, becoming the first semiconductor company to do so, and expected to invest up to 500 billion yen ($3.6 billion) with support from the Japanese government."
— 2023 May 18, Reuters, “Chipmakers look to Japan as worries about China grow”, in CNN Business:
"A one-loop Feynman graph that represents a virtual process. In the limit in which the virtual process involves short distances or high momenta, one may find an ultraviolet divergence in the corresponding amplitude."
— 2004, Barton Zwiebach, A First Course in String Theory, →ISBN, Figure 23.1, page 519:
"Some have advocated the search for a new theory of quantum gravity, a theory which does not suffer from ultraviolet infinity problems."
— 2009, Herbert W. Hamber, Quantum Gravitation: The Feynman Path Integral Approach, →ISBN, page vii:
"Since current gravitational observations are insensitive to quantum effects, one may wonder why an ultraviolet completion of the gravity theory is needed if inflation, in fact, occurs several orders of magnitude below the Planck scale."
— 2017, David F. Chernoff, S.-H. Henry Tye, “Inflation, string theory and cosmic strings”, in Wei-Tou Ni, editor, One Hundred Years of General Relativity […], volume 2, →ISBN, page 275:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ light from the sun can cause skin cancer if you are not careful.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It is very important to wear sunscreen to protect your skin from the harmful ____ rays of the hot summer sun today.