camera

Forms

Plural: cameras

Definitions

1.A device for taking still or moving pictures or photographs.
- Tom didn't notice the surveillance camera.
2.The viewpoint in a three-dimensional game or simulation.
- I'm talking about the way the camera flies up above the skater when you leap into the air. No one had done it before.
- If you're building a third-person game with enclosed or tight spaces, try to figure out up front what camera problems you will likely encounter. Use this identification process to influence the early building process.
3.A vaulted room.
- Tom didn't notice the surveillance camera.
4.A judge's private chamber, where cases may be heard in camera.
- Tom didn't notice the surveillance camera.

Frequency

Overall

Common· #965

By learning goal

Everyday conversation: Common
General reading & writing: Common
Academic: Rare
Literature: Rare

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin camera (“chamber or bedchamber”), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “anything with an arched cover, a covered carriage or boat, a vaulted chamber, a vault”), of Old Iranian origin, from Proto-Iranian *kamarā- (“something curved”), from *kamárati, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kmárati, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em- (“to bend, curve”).