an arthropod eye subdivided into many individual, light-receptive elements, each including a lens, a transmitting apparatus, and retinal cells.
Origin
1830-40
Examples from the web for compound eye
Its entire surface is effectively a big compound eye.
British Dictionary definitions for compound eye
compound eye
noun
1.
the convex eye of insects and some crustaceans, consisting of numerous separate light-sensitive units (ommatidia) See also ocellus
compound eye in Science
compound eye An eye consisting of hundreds or thousands of tiny light-sensitive parts (called ommatidia), with each part serving to focus light on the retina to create a portion of an image. Most insects and some crustaceans have compound eyes.