You'll see not a single glass lens by itself, but rather every image will be of an assembly containing optical lens intended for mounting to a camera.
Also, enter any photography store and ask to see the lenses. You'll not be presented with discrete glass, but rather with assemblies containing glass intended for mounting to a camera.
Perhaps in the eyeglass industry the term "lens" refers to the glass itself as a discrete component, but not in photography.
In the imaging industry the lens assembly is normally called an objective. In every field I've worked in, the lens is the glass and nothing more. If photography uses this term, it's wrong, but if it's established... who cares, just know that fact and move on.
It makes sense in photography where we don't really deal with or think about individual lens elements aside from people who repair their own, or when some new kind of element appears. We also call the whole assembly glass sometimes, though some people think it's pretentious. It's more common in blogs/YouTube/etc than in actual practice where focal lengths and f-stops are usually the main language of lenses.
https://www.google.com/search?q=photography+lens
You'll see not a single glass lens by itself, but rather every image will be of an assembly containing optical lens intended for mounting to a camera.
Also, enter any photography store and ask to see the lenses. You'll not be presented with discrete glass, but rather with assemblies containing glass intended for mounting to a camera.
Perhaps in the eyeglass industry the term "lens" refers to the glass itself as a discrete component, but not in photography.