What does anaglyph mean?
An anaglyph is, in its oldest sense, an object worked in low relief — a gemstone, medallion, or plaque on which the design is raised only slightly above the background surface. Since the nineteenth century, however, the word has come to denote something far more familiar: a stereoscopic image created by printing two slightly different views of the same scene in complementary colors, usually red and cyan, so that they merge into a single three-dimensional picture when seen through specially tinted glasses. This second meaning dominates everyday use, appearing wherever inexpensive 3-D effects are needed, from comics and films to scientific illustration. The term carries a technical, somewhat formal tone and belongs chiefly to the vocabularies of optics, printing, archaeology, and the history of visual media.
nounAn object or image carved or molded in low relief, such as a cameo; more commonly today, a stereoscopic picture made by superimposing two images (typically red and cyan) that appear three-dimensional when viewed through special glasses.
- An object or design carved or molded in low relief, such as a cameo.
- A stereoscopic image formed by superimposing two slightly offset images in complementary colors, perceived in three dimensions when viewed through appropriately filtered glasses.
"The museum displayed an exquisite anaglyph of the emperor's profile, cut in sardonyx."
"Victorian collectors prized every anaglyph they could acquire, from carved gems to plaster casts."
"Early comic books printed their three-dimensional panels as red-and-blue anaglyphs to be read with paper spectacles."
Standard regular plural; used for both the relief carvings and the stereoscopic images.
"The archive holds thousands of anaglyphs from the early days of 3-D photography."
The same word covers ancient Roman cameos and the cheap red-and-blue 3-D glasses you wore at the cinema — and it's been doing double duty since the 1650s.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of anaglyph
Anaglyph derives from Greek anaglyphos, formed from ana- ('up' or 'back') and glyphē ('carving'), via the verb glyphein, 'to carve'. The word entered English through Latin and French in the mid-seventeenth century, first describing works of sculpture raised in low relief. Its later application to stereoscopic imagery extends the idea of a 'raised' or projecting image into the visual realm. It shares this Greek root with hieroglyph, triglyph, and the adjective anaglyphic.
Related word forms
How anaglyph is actually used
In modern usage the word most often refers to the color-filtered stereoscopic imaging technique rather than relief carving; the carving sense is now largely confined to art-historical and archaeological writing. Both senses are formal or technical in register.
Easily confused with anaglyph
A hieroglyph is a character in an ancient Egyptian writing system, whereas an anaglyph is either a low-relief carving or a stereoscopic image viewed with colored glasses.
A diptych is a work of art on two hinged panels, while an anaglyph is a relief carving or a 3-D effect produced from two overlaid images.