optical

UK/ˈɒptɪkəl/US/ˈɑptɪkəl/

adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,984 of 15,258mostly written

Optical means to do with sight and with light. An optical illusion, optical fibre, optical instruments.

An optical illusion is the commonest phrase and names a trick played on the eye rather than on the mind. Optical fibre carries light down a glass thread and is what nearly all long-distance internet traffic runs on.

Definitions of optical

1adjectiveopticalTo do with sight and with light.C1
“The shop sells glasses, contact lenses and other optical products.”

optical is a quality.

Where it comes from

From optic + -al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

optical in the wild

The optical window is also referred to as the "visible window" because it overlaps the human visible response spectrum.
Visible spectrum
In optics, the term image (or optical image) refers specifically to the reproduction of an object formed by light waves coming from the object.
Image
For more general optical systems, the focal length has no intuitive meaning; it is simply the inverse of the system's optical power.
Focal length
An optical telegraph is a line of stations, typically towers, for the purpose of conveying textual information by means of visual signals (a form of optical communication).
Optical telegraph
An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other.
Optical fiber

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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