anamorphic

adjective

ana·​mor·​phic ˌa-nə-ˈmȯr-fik 

: producing, relating to, or marked by intentional distortion (as by unequal magnification along perpendicular axes) of an image

an anamorphic lens

Examples of anamorphic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Hell’s Kitchen does feel like a very anamorphic place. —Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 24 Mar. 2025

Deakins went on to echo Lachman’s sentiments and really put the blame on how anamorphic lenses tend to wash out certain elements of an image. —Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 16 Mar. 2025

Open Gate uses the full sensor area for a 3:2 aspect and is a good option for content creators who want to pull both 16:9 and 9:16 frames from the same clip or use an anamorphic lens to achieve an extra-wide CinemaScope aspect ratio. —PCMAG, 12 Mar. 2025

Cinerama required three projectors at once pointing at a huge, curved screen, while CinemaScope required anamorphic lenses which often suffered from edge distortion. —Benny Har-Even, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from French anamorphique, derivative (by analogy with other derivatives with -morphique -morphic) of anamorphose "anamorphosis (image produced by a distorting optical system)," borrowed from New Latin anamorphosis, probably from Greek ana- ana- + -morphōsis (as in metamórphōsis "transformation, metamorphosis")

Note: The New Latin word anamorphosis in reference to optical distortion was apparently introduced by the German Jesuit scientific writer Gaspar Schott (1608-66) in his Magia universalis naturae et artis (Würzburg, 1657), p. 100 ff.

First Known Use

1875, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for anamorphic

• automorphic
• geomorphic
• holomorphic
• homomorphic
• isomorphic
• meromorphic
• metamorphic
• monomorphic
• polymorphic
• anthropomorphic
• homeomorphic
• dimorphic