macroscopic
Americanadjective
-
visible to the naked eye.
-
pertaining to large units; comprehensive.
adjective
-
large enough to be visible to the naked eye Compare microscopic
-
comprehensive; concerned with large units
-
physics capable of being described by the statistical properties of a large number of parts
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of macroscopic
Explanation
Macroscopic things are large enough to be seen without using a microscope. Many creatures, from ants to elephants, are macroscopic. Macroscopic is the opposite of microscopic, which describes anything you need a microscope to see. A scientist might use macroscopic to talk about the regular view of an object, when you're looking at it unaided by any magnification device. The macroscopic view of a leaf is quite different from the microscopic, which reveals the molecules that comprise it. Macro- means "large," from the Greek root makros, "long or large."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This compact book weaves together topics including the microscopic quantum tunneling required for nuclear fusion and the macroscopic geometry of spacetime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
“Chemotherapy is much more effective at eradicating minimal disease than it is macroscopic disease that you can already see on imaging.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
This switching changes the material's macroscopic electrical properties and reverses which direction has easier electrical flow, a property known as the diode effect, where current flows more easily in one direction than the other.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2025
In the words of the committee, "the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit".
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
Darwin’s question was macroscopic: How do organisms transmute information about their features over a thousand generations?
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
