A substance or material that displays different physical or optical properties depending on the direction in which it is measured.
From Greek 'aniso-' (unequal) + 'trope' (direction), forming a noun for materials with directional properties. The term became standard in physics and crystallography in the 1800s.
Crystals are nature's anisotropes—a single piece of calcite crystal can bend light differently depending on which direction the light travels through it, creating double images.
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