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• test tube
  test tube

  noun

  a hollow cylinder of thin glass with one end closed, used in chemical and biological experimentation and analysis.
• test-tube
  test-tube

  adjective

  produced in or as if in a test tube; synthetic or experimental.

test tube

¹ American  

noun

1. a hollow cylinder of thin glass with one end closed, used in chemical and biological experimentation and analysis.

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test-tube ² American  

[test-toob, -tyoob] / ˈtɛstˌtub, -ˌtyub /

adjective

1. produced in or as if in a test tube; synthetic or experimental.

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test tube British  

noun

1. a cylindrical round-bottomed glass tube open at one end: used in scientific experiments

2. (modifier) made synthetically in, or as if in, a test tube

   a test-tube product

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test tube Scientific  

/ tĕst /

1. A cylindrical tube of clear glass, usually open at one end and rounded at the other, used as a container for small amounts of a substance in laboratory tests and experiments.

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Etymology

Origin of test tube¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Origin of test-tube²

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

In test tube studies, bone forming cells quickly moved into the structured hydrogel and began producing collagen, a key building block of bone.

From Science Daily • Mar. 3, 2026

It comprised a brick-coloured concoction bubbling away in a test tube.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2025

There are levels to the game, and on some levels, you don’t see the colors of the marbles that are farther down in the test tube until they are accessible.

From Slate • Dec. 28, 2024

Daniel Perez, an influenza researcher at the University of Georgia, is doing his own test tube study of pasteurization of milk spiked with a different avian influenza virus.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 22, 2024

The discovery thrilled physicists around the world, not least Marie Curie, to whose deathbed the Joliots brought a test tube of the first artificially produced radioelement.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik