HOW TO PRONOUNCE
spectrum
/ˈspɛktɹəm/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
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Stress “spec” and keep “ktr” connected.
Use two syllables, beginning with the short e of bed. After the stressed vowel, move through k, t and r into the light final vowel without adding another beat.
2 syllables · Stress on syllable 1
TRY SAYING
“The display shows a spectrum of colors.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does spectrum mean?
noun
- A range; a continuous, infinite, one-dimensional set, possibly bounded by extremes.
- Specifically, a range of colours representing light (electromagnetic radiation) of contiguous frequencies; hence electromagnetic spectrum, visible spectrum, ultraviolet spectrum, etc.
- The autism spectrum.
More meanings (7)
noun
- A set of frequencies that are used for radio-frequency communication; not necessarily a continuous range.
- The pattern of absorption or emission of radiation produced by a substance when subjected to energy (radiation, heat, electricity, etc.).
- The set of eigenvalues of a matrix.
- Of a bounded linear operator A, the set of scalar values λ such that the operator A—λI, where I denotes the identity operator, does not have a bounded inverse; intended as a generalisation of the linear algebra sense.
- An abstract object in mathematics created from a commutative ring R and denoted operatorname Spec(R) or operatorname SpecR and said to be the spectrum of R; useful in the study of such rings for providing a geometric object which encodes many of the properties R, and in modern geometry for generalizing the notion of an algebraic variety to that of an affine scheme. Formally, the set of all prime ideals R equipped with the Zariski topology and augmented with a sheaf of rings called the structure sheaf, generated by the B-sheaf on the distinguished open sets D_f which assigns the localization of R at f to each set D_f, regarded as a ring of functions on D_f. See Spectrum of a ring on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- The image of something seen that persists after the eyes are closed.
- (obsolete) Specter, apparition.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈspɛktɹəm/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
This is called the solar spectrum, and will be readily understood by reference to the accompanying diagram, Fig.
And for the same reason he has lost receptibility to intermediate vibrations in the COLOR spectrum, which has clouded or stultified his visional faculties.
More book examples (3)
As thus prepared, radium is a well-marked chemical element, forming a series of compounds analogous to those of barium and showing a characteristic line spectrum.
Their spectra appear to be prevailingly of the solar type, except that a very small proportion contain some bright lines in addition to the continuous spectrum.
Save that an unknown element giving a group of four lines in the blue of the spectrum is concerned, we are still entirely ignorant of the nature of this substance.