refringency

English

Noun

refringency (usually uncountable, plural refringencies)

1. The power of a substance to refract a ray.
   • 1843, Richard Taylor, Scientific Memoirs:

     The velocity with which a luminous ray passes through a given body depends exclusively on the refringency of this body and on the velocity of emission of the ray, on the velocity it had in vacuo

References

• “refringency”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.