reflection

Noun

1. The act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.
2. The property of a propagated wave being thrown back from a surface (such as a mirror).
3. Something, such as an image, that is reflected.
   • The dog barked at his own reflection in the mirror.
   • A body of black that carried no reflection. - 1997, In Flames, “Jotun”, in Whoracle:
4. Careful thought or consideration.
   • After careful reflection, I have decided not to vote for that proposition.
   • But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. - 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The...

   Synonyms: cogitation contemplation deliberation mulling musing pondering meditation reflection rethinking reconsideration rumination thought

5. A representative manifestation or outcome of a condition, trend or trait.
   • Our recent results are a reflection of the progress we've made as a team.
   • Zuckerberg said last month that the name change was a reflection of how much Facebook had evolved. - 2021 November 11, “When a Logo Doesn’t Risk It All: Meta’s Brand Is Designed for Unknown Worlds”, in The New York...

   1. (followed by on) Used to make an implied criticism.

      • It is a reflection on his character that he never came back to see them.
6. The process or mechanism of determining the capabilities of an object at run-time.
   • DynamicMBeanFacade uses Java's reflection API to introspect the managed resource and discover data type information for attributes. - 2002, Java Enterprise Best Practices, O'Reilly:
7. The folding of a part; a fold.