Adjacent Words

Microscope definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MIC'ROSCOPE, n. [Gr. small, and to view.] An optical instrument consisting of lenses or mirrors,which magnify objects,and thus render visible minute objects which cannot be seen by the naked eye, or enlarge the apparent magnitude of small visible bodies, so as to enable us to examine their texture or construction.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: magnifier of the image of small objects; "the invention of the microscope led to the discovery of the cell"

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: New Latin microscopium, from micr- + -scopium -scope Date: 1651 1. an optical instrument consisting of a lens or combination of lenses for making enlarged images of minute objects; especially compound microscope 2. a non-optical instrument (as one using radiations other than light or using vibrations) for making enlarged images of minute objects <an acoustic microscope>

Britannica Concise

Instrument that produces enlarged images of small objects, allowing them to be viewed at a scale convenient for examination and analysis. Formed by various means, the image is received by direct imaging, electronic processing, or a combination of these methods. The most familiar type of microscope is the optical, or light, microscope, in which lenses are used to form the image. Other types of microscopes use the wave nature of various physical processes, the most important being the electron microscope (see electron microscopy), which uses a beam of electrons in its image formation. Crude microscopes date to the mid-15th cent., but not until 1674 were the powerful microscopes of A. von Leeuwenhoek able to detect phenomena as small as protozoa.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. an instrument magnifying small objects by means of a lens or lenses so as to reveal details invisible to the naked eye. Etymology: mod.L microscopium (as MICRO-, -SCOPE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Microscope Mi"cro*scope, n. [Micro- + -scope.] An optical instrument, consisting of a lens, or combination of lenses, for making an enlarged image of an object which is too minute to be viewed by the naked eye. Compound microscope, an instrument consisting of a combination of lenses such that the image formed by the lens or set of lenses nearest the object (called the objective) is magnified by another lens called the ocular or eyepiece. Oxyhydrogen microscope, and Solar microscope. See under Oxyhydrogen, and Solar. Simple, or Single, microscope, a single convex lens used to magnify objects placed in its focus.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Microscope Mi"cro*scope, n. [Micro- + -scope.] An optical instrument, consisting of a lens, or combination of lenses, for making an enlarged image of an object which is too minute to be viewed by the naked eye. Compound microscope, an instrument consisting of a combination of lenses such that the image formed by the lens or set of lenses nearest the object (called the objective) is magnified by another lens called the ocular or eyepiece. Oxyhydrogen microscope, and Solar microscope. See under Oxyhydrogen, and Solar. Simple, or Single, microscope, a single convex lens used to magnify objects placed in its focus.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Achromatic Ach`ro*mat"ic, a. [Gr. ? colorless; 'a priv. + ?, ?, color: cf. F. achromatique.] 1. (Opt.) Free from color; transmitting light without decomposing it into its primary colors. 2. (Biol.) Uncolored; not absorbing color from a fluid; -- said of tissue. Achromatic lens (Opt.), a lens composed usually of two separate lenses, a convex and concave, of substances having different refractive and dispersive powers, as crown and flint glass, with the curvatures so adjusted that the chromatic aberration produced by the one is corrected by other, and light emerges from the compound lens undecomposed. Achromatic prism. See Prism. Achromatic telescope, or microscope, one in which the chromatic aberration is corrected, usually by means of a compound or achromatic object glass, and which gives images free from extraneous color.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(microscopes) 1. A microscope is a scientific instrument which makes very small objects look bigger so that more detail can be seen. N-COUNT 2. If you say that something is under the microscope, you mean that it is being studied very closely, usually because it is believed that something is wrong with it. The media put their every decision under the microscope. PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR