dispersion

1. The act or process of scattering or dispersing, or the state of being scattered or separated; as, the Jews in their dispersion retained their rites and ceremonies; a great dispersion of the human family took place at the building of Babel. The days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished. Jer. xxv. 34.

2. (Opt.)

The separation of light into its different colored rays, arising from their different refrangibilities. Dispersion of the optic axes (Crystallog.), the separation of the optic axes in biaxial crystals, due to the fact that the axial angle has different values for the different colors of the spectrum.