compound eye

noun

1. an arthropod eye subdivided into many individual, light-receptive elements, each including a lens, a transmitting apparatus, and retinal cells.

compound eye

noun

1. the convex eye of insects and some crustaceans, consisting of numerous separate light-sensitive units (ommatidia) See also ocellus

compound eye

1. An eye consisting of hundreds or thousands of tiny light-sensitive parts (called ommatidia), with each part serving to focus light on the retina to create a portion of an image. Most insects and some crustaceans have compound eyes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of compound eye¹

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

In contrast, the smaller eyespots in certain chitons function more like individual pixels, or the compound eye of an insect, forming a visual sensor distributed over the chiton's shell.

From Science Daily

These lenses, though, belong not to a compound eye but to polydimethylsiloxane -- a flexible polymer long ranking as a favored playground of Nebraska's Stephen Morin and his band of fellow chemists.

From Science Daily

Starting with the photosensors in the insects’ large, compound eyes, the engineers traced the circuits through the various layers of neurons and into the brain.

From Scientific American

Animals with compound eyes have an essentially pixelated view of the world, Ms. Jenkins said, with each facet of the eye delivering a separate pixel.

From New York Times

It gives you a staccato series of micro-impressions, as if you were looking through a fly’s compound eyes.

From New York Times