specular

From Latin speculāris, from speculum; and in some senses from speculārī (“to watch, observe”). Some later senses via French spéculaire.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspɛkjʊlə/

specular (comparative more specular, superlative most specular)

1. Pertaining to mirrors; mirror-like, reflective. [from 17th c.]
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 14:

     a perfect likeness would rather suggest a specular, and hence speculatory, phenomenon [...].

2. (medicine) Of or relating to a speculum; conducted with the aid of a speculum.

   a specular examination

3. Assisting sight, like a lens etc.
   • J. Philips

     Thy specular orb / Apply to well-dissected kernels; lo! / In each observe the slender threads / Of first-beginning trees.

4. (poetic) Offering an expansive view; picturesque.
   • 1833, William Wordsworth, Hope Smiled:

     Calm as the Universe, from specular towers / Of heaven contemplated by Spirits pure.

   • Milton

     Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount.

• despecularize
• specular iron
• specularity
• specularize
• specular stone

• carpules