Home British & World English facet

Definition of facet in English:

facet

noun

1One side of something many-sided, especially of a cut gem.
‘a blue and green jewel that shines from a million facets’
- ‘The many voices of the metropolis only come together like facets of a many-sided prism in the fourth projection, which stands separate from the other three.’
- ‘There are relationships between all of the angles of the 58 facets on a diamond.’
- ‘There are two basic styles: one features small square facets while the other has grooves running all the way around the body of the glass, vase or candle holder.’
- ‘The brass ornaments caught the shimmer of the candle light that I held in my hand and reflected the rays back with the facets that had been pounded into their surface.’
- ‘Modified brilliants have the same facets and facet arrangement.’
- ‘The rock was also a little slimy, which was the result of much salt encrusting the facets of every feature.’
- ‘This construction might best be described as a crystalline field, a field formed of facets, each facet an ossification of one instant or angle of displacement.’
- ‘If you look through only one facet at the other facets, they look distorted and wrong.’
- ‘It also refers to the number of facets, or flat surfaces, on a diamond.’
- ‘In the hardened and tempered condition the fractured surface shows dull facets.’
- ‘The different facets act both as surface decoration and refract light through the vessel.’
- ‘To counteract this focusing, the conventional approach is to break up the circular geometry with facets or convex surfaces to provide a degree of sound diffusion.’
- ‘Lightning and firelight flash in the tiny facets cut into its surface and its gems, though not nearly as much as they would if its silver was polished.’
- ‘Because they weren't flattened, you could see the planes where they articulated, like facets.’
- ‘He walked to the window, and suddenly, it shattered and produced a million facets of light.’
surface, face, side, plane, angle, slant
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2A particular aspect or feature of something.
‘a philosophy that extends to all facets of the business’
- ‘Women are not simply one dimensional; we have many different facets to our characters.’
- ‘A facet is an aspect or dimension of an object or piece of information.’
- ‘What may sound like the stuff of science fiction is set to become an integral facet of the day-to-day lives of millions of people.’
- ‘All the facets of the business environment were deliberated, to shed new light on the working of corporates.’
- ‘Conservation must remain an important facet of any eco-tourism business and the projects should do well economically to succeed, she feels.’
- ‘Such sequences were nothing new to Jost's films - indeed they constitute a distinct facet of his authorial style in most of the earlier features as well.’
- ‘The recognition that both individualism and relatedness can have both positive and negative facets has become more pronounced in recent years.’
- ‘The various facets of his character occasionally complemented his ambition and ideals, but more often resulted in confusing contradiction.’
- ‘They have been expected to start at the lowest rank and have been trained in all facets of the business.’
- ‘When different cultures come to live side by side, they naturally and wonderfully begin to assimilate facets of each other.’
- ‘Pitt pulls off an outstanding performance in this role, maintaining a credible balance between the comedic and the serious facets of Mickey's character.’
- ‘Is there any facet, any aspect of hockey that is better on the smaller ice?’
- ‘To attract holidayers to the State during the Southwest monsoon, brochures detailing the various facets of the monsoon have been brought as in previous years.’
- ‘This method, which is utilized mainly in respect of overseas transactions and constitutes an important facet of banking business, is considered further below.’
- ‘The practice of adding and subtracting aspects from his home page also highlights particular facets of Yuan's identity at different times.’
- ‘The resulting communication failure featured a number of facets.’
- ‘Cyberspace right now is made up of a series of windows on the real world, that allow us to see views, or facets, or aspects of people elsewhere.’
- ‘The author has a wonderful awareness for tiny details that somehow brilliantly illuminate particular facets of the struggle.’
- ‘Isn't this a normal facet of business daily life?’
- ‘A growing body of literature has tested the linkages between various facets of religion and individual well-being.’
aspect, feature, side, dimension, particular, characteristic, detail, point, ingredient, strand, factor
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3Zoology
Any of the individual units (ommatidia) that make up the compound eye of an insect or crustacean.
- ‘Cone cells number four per facet in many compound eyes.’
- ‘Drosophila compound eyes are composed of 800 identical facets or ommatidia.’
- ‘For example, although crustacean compound eye facets are diverse, most are similar to insect ommatidia.’
- ‘Often later ommatidial cell fates cannot be specified, such as pigment cells that normally function to separate ommatidia into individual facets.’