Meanings
plural vergences
- countableuncountablemedicineThe simultaneous turning of both eyes when focusing.First known use 1902
- countableuncountableengineeringA measure of convergence or divergence of rays.First known use c. 1920
a special vertex trial case computed for an object vergence of 4.00.
1921, The Optician and Scientific Instrument Maker, volume 62, page 11 more example
1947 Benjamin King Johnson, Optics and Optical Instruments: An Introduction with Special Reference to Practical Applications, Courier Corporation (1960 [1947]), p. 152. "Ample movement between the source and condenser should be available in order to allow for a variation in the vergence of the light leaving the condenser"
- countableuncountablegeographyThe direction of the overturned component of an asymmetric fold.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From verge (“tend, incline”, from Latin vergere) + -ence, synonym of earlier (1660s) vergency (the equivalent of French vergence). Coined as a technical term in ophthalmology, as a hypernym of convergence and divergence, in 1902. The sense of the numeric quantity in geometric optics was introduced, from use of the term in physiological optics, in the 1920s.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with vergence
All rhymes →Cite this entry
vergence. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vergence
“vergence.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vergence. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vergence,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vergence.
Source: vergence on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.