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In optics, why is "lens" not "len" used?

Why is "lens" used as a singular not plural?

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Not every word in English that ends in -s is plural.

Consider:

gas
bus
canvas
news
atlas

The why is probably because the word lens was taken from the Latin word lens, which is also singular. See Online Etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary says the same.

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    Isn't News a plural of New? A Newspaper contains many articles of new things that happen. "I have good news (many good new things)" Like Sweets (pieces of candy) - a group of things is described by their main adjective in plural.
    – DraxDomax
    Jan 26, 2016 at 10:41
  • @DraxDomax agree, news is not a great example here and probably adds more confusion than clarity since it is formed out of a plural construction, even if it is often used grammatically as singular.
    – BobH
    Nov 5, 2022 at 0:16
  • @BobH the weirdest thing is I don't think I wrote that. I am not interested in this question and I don't really know what an adjective is
    – DraxDomax
    Nov 10, 2022 at 9:55
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In optics, lens is a singular noun and its plural is "lenses". A noun that ends with " s" doesn't necessarily mean it's a plural.

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