Title: specular reflection
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - specular reflection
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08292
Status: current

Definition
Reflection of electromagnetic radiation from a surface such that each incident ray is reflected at the same angle to the surface normal as the incident ray, but on the opposing side of the surface normal in the plane formed by incident and reflected rays.

Note
An image reflected by the surface in this way is reproduced in mirror-like (specular) fashion.

Related Terms
- Reflection: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08281
- electromagnetic radiation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08242

Source
- PAC, 2021, 93, 647. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in analytical spectroscopy (IUPAC Recommendations 2019)' on page 675 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0203)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08292/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08292/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08292/xml

Citation: Citation: 'specular reflection' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08292
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-29T06:58:50+00:00