reflected

Reflected is the past participle of the verb reflect and can function as an adjective or a verb in various contexts. As a verb, reflect carries senses of throwing back or turning back, such as light, sound, or heat, and of considering something carefully. The noun form is reflection, and the word derives from Middle French and Latin roots meaning to bend back.

In physics and everyday experience, reflected describes waves that bounce off a surface. In optics, the law of reflection states that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection when a wave strikes a smooth surface. Surfaces can produce specular reflection (mirror-like) or diffuse reflection (scattered in many directions). Reflection also applies to sound, radio, and seismic waves, where echoes are produced by bouncing off boundaries.

In geometry, a reflection is a transformation that creates a mirror image across a line (in the plane) or a point (central reflection). This transformation preserves distances but reverses orientation. For example, reflecting a point (x, y) across the x-axis yields (x, -y), and across the y-axis yields (-x, y). Reflections are one of the basic isometries used to describe symmetry.

Beyond science, reflected can describe something that has been thought about or considered, or something shown in a mirror. In computing, reflection (and by extension “reflected” objects) refers to mechanisms that allow a program to inspect or modify its own structure at runtime.