Definition of scotopic in US English:




    Often contrasted with photopic
    • ‘Visual pigments have also evolved to perform specialized functions, such as color vision and scotopic vision.’
    • ‘The low dark noise of rods allows the scotopic system to reliably detect a flash eliciting less than 10 effectively absorbed photons.’
    • ‘The photopic curve is for normal vision, and the scotopic curve is for eyes that are adjusted to the dark.’
    • ‘Honeybees, forced to feed under dim light levels are colour-blind just as humans are under scotopic conditions’


Early 20th century: from Greek skotos ‘darkness’ + -opia + -ic.