hologram

/ˈhɑləgræm/

/ˈhɒləgræm/

Other forms: holograms

If you've ever looked through a View-Master, you've seen a hologram — an image or photograph that appears to be three-dimensional.

Holograms sometimes appear on credit cards, passports, and driver's licenses as security against forgery, and they are also occasionally used in art. The process of creating a hologram is complicated and scientific, usually involving a special kind of laser. The word hologram was invented by Dennis Gabor, the scientist who developed holography in 1949, by combining the Greek holos, "whole," and gramme, "line."

Definitions of hologram

1. noun

   the intermediate photograph (or photographic record) that contains information for reproducing a three-dimensional image by holography
   synonyms: holograph

   type of:

   exposure, photo, photograph, pic, picture

   a representation of a person or scene in the form of a print or transparent slide; recorded by a camera on light-sensitive material