In optics, why is "lens" not "len" used?
Why is "lens" used as a singular not plural?
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1focus.olsztyn.pl/en-grammar-nouns-uncountable-s.html– JimCommented Jun 1, 2015 at 0:55
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2 Answers
Not every word in English that ends in -s is plural.
Consider:
gas
bus
canvas
news
atlas
The why is probably because the word lens was taken from the Latin word lens, which is also singular. See Online Etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary says the same.
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1Isn't News a plural of New? A Newspaper contains many articles of new things that happen. "I have good news (many good new things)" Like Sweets (pieces of candy) - a group of things is described by their main adjective in plural. Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 10:41
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@DraxDomax agree, news is not a great example here and probably adds more confusion than clarity since it is formed out of a plural construction, even if it is often used grammatically as singular.– BobHCommented Nov 5, 2022 at 0:16
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@BobH the weirdest thing is I don't think I wrote that. I am not interested in this question and I don't really know what an adjective is Commented Nov 10, 2022 at 9:55
In optics, lens is a singular noun and its plural is "lenses". A noun that ends with " s" doesn't necessarily mean it's a plural.
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1Well, len exists in English as a first name and as a computer function.– user6951Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 6:01