microscope

English

A compound microscope

Etymology

From New Latin microscopium, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) + σκοπέω (skopéō, “I look at”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: mīʹkrə-skōp'
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌskəʊp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌskoʊp/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧cro‧scope

Noun

microscope (plural microscopes)

1. An optical instrument used for observing small objects.
   • 1837, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, volume 23, page 222:

     That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable.

2. Any instrument for imaging very small objects (such as an electron microscope).

Derived terms

• atomic force microscope
• bimicroscope
• biomicroscope
• colpomicroscope
• compound microscope
• cryomicroscope
• cryo-transmission electron microscope
• dissecting microscope
• electromicroscope
• electron microscope
• endomicroscope
• epifluorescence microscope
• field emission microscope
• fluorescence microscope
• fluoromicroscope
• interference microscope
• light microscope
• microscopal
• microscope slide
• microscopial
• microscopic
• microscopical
• microscopist
• microscopy
• monochromated scanning transmission electron microscope
• optical microscope
• otomicroscope
• petrographic microscope
• phase contrast microscope
• photomicroscope
• reflecting microscope
• scanning electron microscope
• scanning transmission electron microscope
• scanning tunneling microscope
• simple microscope
• solar microscope
• spectromicroscope
• stereo microscope
• stereomicroscope
• stimulated emission depletion microscope
• supermicroscope
• telemicroscope
• transmission electron microscope
• ultramicroscope
• under the microscope
• videomicroscope
• X-ray microscope

 

Translations

an optical instrument

• Abkhaz: амикроскоп (amikʼroskʼopʼ)
• Afrikaans: mikroskoop (af)
• Albanian: mikroskop (sq) m
• Arabic: مِجْهَر m (mijhar)
• Armenian: մանրադիտակ (hy) (manraditak)
• Aromanian: microscopu
• Asturian: microscopiu m
• Avar: микроско́п (mikroskóp)
• Azerbaijani: mikroskop (az), xürdəbin
• Bashkir: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Basque: mikroskopio (eu)
• Belarusian: мікраско́п m (mikraskóp)
• Bengali: অণুবীক্ষণযন্ত্র (onubikkhonojontro)
• Bihari: खुर्दबीन, सूक्ष्मदर्शी
• Breton: mikroskop m
• Bulgarian: микроско́п m (mikroskóp)
• Burmese: မိုက္ကရိုစကုပ် (muikka.ruica.kup)
• Carpathian Rusyn: микроско́п m (mykroskóp)
• Catalan: microscopi (ca) m
• Chechen: микроско́п (mikroskóp)
• Cherokee: ᎾᎥᏂᎨ ᎠᎪᎵᎡᏙᏗ (navnige agoliedodi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 顯微鏡／显微镜 (hin² mei⁴ geng³)

  Eastern Min: 顯微鏡／显微镜 (hiēng-mì-giáng)

  Hakka: 顯微鏡／显微镜 (hién-mì-kiang)

  Hokkien: 顯微鏡／显微镜 (zh-min-nan) (hián-bî-kiàⁿ)

  Mandarin: 顯微鏡／显微镜 (zh) (xiǎnwēijìng)

• Chuvash: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Crimean Tatar: mikroskop, hurdebin
• Czech: mikroskop (cs) m
• Danish: mikroskop (da) n
• Dargwa: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Dutch: microscoop (nl) m
• Eastern Mari: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Erzya: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Esperanto: mikroskopo
• Estonian: mikroskoop
• Finnish: mikroskooppi (fi)
• French: microscope (fr) m
• Friulian: microscop m
• Galician: microscopio (gl) m
• Georgian: მიკროსკოპი (miḳrosḳoṗi)
• German: Mikroskop (de) n
• Greek: μικροσκόπιο (el) n (mikroskópio)
• Haitian Creole: fotomikwoskòp konpoze
• Hebrew: מִיקְרוֹסְקוֹפִּ (he) m (mikroscop)
• Hindi: ख़ुर्दबीन f (xurdabīn), सूक्ष्मदर्शी (hi) m (sūkṣmadarśī)
• Hungarian: mikroszkóp (hu)
• Icelandic: smásjá (is) f
• Ido: mikroskopo (io)
• Indonesian: mikroskop (id)
• Irish: micreascóp m
• Italian: microscopio (it) m
• Jamaican Creole: maikroskuop
• Japanese: 顕微鏡 (ja) (けんびきょう, kenbikyō), マイクロスコープ (maikurosukōpu)
• Javanese: mikroskop
• Kannada: ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮದರ್ಶಕ (kn) (sūkṣmadarśaka), ಸೀರುತೋರ‍್ಪುಕ (kn) (sīrutōra‍puka), ಮೈಕ್ರೋಸ್ಕೋಪು (kn) (maikrōskōpu)
• Kashubian: mikroskòp m
• Kazakh: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Khmer: អតិសុខុមទស្សន៍ (ʼaʼtesokhomĕəʼtŭəh), មីក្រូទស្សន៍ (miikrootʊəh)
• Korean: 현미경(顯微鏡) (ko) (hyeonmigyeong)
• Kumyk: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: وردبین (wirdbîn)

  Northern Kurdish: mîkroskop (ku), hûrbîn (ku)

• Kyrgyz: микроскоп (ky) (mikroskop)
• Latin: mīcroscopium n
• Latvian: mikroskops m
• Lezgi: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Limburgish: microscoap
• Lithuanian: mikroskopas m
• Macedonian: ми́кроскоп m (míkroskop)
• Malay: mikroskop (ms), teropong halus, teropong tuma, teropong kuman, teropong hama
• Malayalam: സൂക്ഷ്മദർശിനി (ml) (sūkṣmadaṟśini)
• Manx: mynreayrtane
• Maori: karaihe whakanui, karuwhakarahi
• Marathi: सूक्ष्मदर्शक (sūkṣmadarśak)
• Mongolian: микроскоп (mn) (mikroskop)
• Navajo: chʼosh doo yitʼíinii bee nílʼíní
• Neapolitan: micruscopio m
• Northern Sotho: maekrosekôpo
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mikroskop n

  Nynorsk: mikroskop n

• Occitan: microscòpi (oc) m
• Ossetian: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Ottoman Turkish: hurdebîn
• Persian: ریزبین (fa) (riz-bin), میکروسکوپ (fa) (mikroskop)
• Piedmontese: microscòpi m
• Polish: mikroskop (pl) m
• Portuguese: microscópio (pt) m
• Romanian: microscop (ro) n
• Russian: микроско́п (ru) m (mikroskóp)
• Saterland Frisian: Mikroskop n
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ми̏кроскоп m

  Roman: mȉkroskop (sh) m, sitnòzor (sh) m (Croatia)

• Shona: dongoradatu
• Sinhalese: අන්වීක්ෂය (anwīkṣaya)
• Slovak: mikroskop m
• Slovene: mikroskop (sl) m
• Somali: sheybaar
• Spanish: microscopio (es) m
• Sundanese: mikroskop
• Swahili: hadubini (sw), darubini ya vidudu
• Swedish: mikroskop (sv) n
• Tagalog: mikroskopyo, miksipat
• Tajik: резбин (rezbin)
• Tamil: நுண்நோக்கி (nuṇnōkki)
• Tatar: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Telugu: సూక్ష్మదర్శిని (te) (sūkṣmadarśini)
• Thai: กล้องจุลทรรศน์ (th) (glong jun la taad)
• Tibetan: ཆེ་ཤེལ (che shel)
• Turkish: mikroskop (tr)
• Ukrainian: мікроско́п m (mikroskóp)
• Urdu: خردبین (xurd-bīn), خرد بین (xurd-bīn)
• Uyghur: مىكروسكوپ (mikroskop)
• Uzbek: mikroskop (uz)
• Vietnamese: kính hiển vi (vi) (鏡顯微)
• Volapük: daluskop (vo)
• Võro: mikroskuup, fähküsilm
• Waray-Waray: mikroskopyo
• Welsh: mwyadur m, microsgop m
• West Frisian: mikroskoop n
• Western Panjabi: مائکروسکوپ
• Yakut: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Yiddish: מיקראָסקאָפּ m (mikroskop)
• Zazaki: mikroskop

See also

• magnifying glass
• telescope

Verb

microscope (third-person singular simple present microscopes, present participle microscoping, simple past and past participle microscoped)

1. To examine with a microscope, to put under a microscope (literally or figuratively).

   Synonym: microscopize

   • 1897, The Clinical Journal, page 200:

     It has a strong germicidal action, as can be verified by staining and microscoping the pus, the characteristic micro-organisms disappearing rapidly under its use.

   • 2012, E.J. Zingg, D.M.A. Wallace, Bladder Cancer, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 79:

     Wright (1959), using the standard and less laborious technique of microscoping the centrifuged deposit of a sample of urine, found that 21.6% of males attending life insurance examinations had more than 10 red blood cells per high power field (rbc/hpf).

Translations

Translations

• German: mikroskopieren (de)

French

Etymology

From micro- +‎ -scope.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

microscope m (plural microscopes)

1. microscope

Derived terms

• microscopie
• microscopique

Further reading

• “microscope”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.