camera ob·scu·ra (?b-skyo?or??) n. A darkened chamber in which the real image of an object is received through a small opening or lens and focused in natural color onto a facing surface rather than recorded on a film or plate. [New Latin camera obsc?ra : Latin camera, chamber; see chamber + Latin obsc?ra, feminine of obsc?rus, dark; see obscure.] American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.camera obscura (?b?skj??r?) n (Art Terms) a darkened chamber or small building in which images of outside objects are projected onto a flat surface by a convex lens in an aperture. Sometimes shortened to: camera [New Latin: dark chamber]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014cam?era ob?scu?ra (?b?sky??r ?) n., pl. camera ob?scu?ras. a darkened boxlike device in which images of external objects, received through an aperture, as with a convex lens, are exhibited in their natural colors on a surface. [1660?70;