centrifuge
Americannoun
-
centrifuges
plural
verb (used with object)
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centrifuges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
centrifuged,
past participle, past
-
centrifuging
present participle
noun
-
any of various rotating machines that separate liquids from solids or dispersions of one liquid in another, by the action of centrifugal force
-
any of various rotating devices for subjecting human beings or animals to varying accelerations for experimental purposes
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
centrifugesimple
-
centrifugessimple
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have centrifugedperfect
-
has centrifugedperfect
-
am centrifugingprogressive
-
are centrifugingprogressive
-
is centrifugingprogressive
-
have been centrifugingperfect progressive
-
has been centrifugingperfect progressive
Past
-
centrifugedsimple
-
had centrifugedperfect
-
was centrifugingprogressive
-
were centrifugingprogressive
-
had been centrifugingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of centrifuge
1795–1805; < French, noun use of centrifuge (adj.) < New Latin centrifugus center-fleeing; see centrifugal
Explanation
That ride at the fair that spins you around until you stick to the walls? The device in your washing machine that spins your clothes around quickly to get the water out of them? Those are centrifuges. Centrifuges are used mostly in science. In this application, centrifugal force — the force from spinning that moves things away from the center — separates liquids that have different weights. For example, a centrifuge is used to separate blood cells from plasma cells. When the blood is spun in the centrifuge, the heavier plasma cells separate from the lighter blood cells, and can be collected for other uses.
Vocabulary lists containing centrifuge
100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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This Week In Words: November 14–20, 2020
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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.
See Examples For:
By using a specially designed optical centrifuge, the team was able to precisely spin molecules suspended in liquid helium nano-droplets, giving scientists a powerful new tool for exploring these unusual frictionless materials.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 4, 2026
It is hard to imagine that Iran’s centrifuge cascades survived the intense bombing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Jarrell-Searcy's parents met over a test-tube centrifuge in a laboratory.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
That is done by converting it into a gas and spinning it at high speeds in a centrifuge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Gaseous diffusion and the centrifuge appeared to be feasible in theory for the large-scale production of U-235, but both were hobbled by unsolved technical problems, and neither had yet produced any U-235 to speak of.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Its successful demonstration project with the Energy Department involved 16 centrifuges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Tehran has previously indicated that it may be a replacement for a building within the Natanz complex used for the assembly of advanced centrifuges that was damaged after a suspected sabotage operation in July 2020.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
"It is plausible that high value items, such as uranium gas centrifuges, were brought into and stored within the tunnels," says Faragasso.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
The latter was shortsighted, as the Journal’s report on the transfer of centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain makes clear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Star City contains full-size mock-ups of spacecraft, a hydro-laboratory large enough for a 20-ton space module, special aircraft that simulate weightlessness, two centrifuges, and a planetarium with the capacity to show 9,000 stars.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
The DNA was centrifuged at high speeds in an ultracentrifuge.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Before and after that process, the researchers drew blood, biopsied tissues, centrifuged fluids and microscopically searched for vesicles and other molecular changes in the tissues.
From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2021
Samples were vortexed for 10 min at 4 °C and centrifuged at 13,000 r.p.m. for 10 min at 4 °C. The lower lipid-containing layer was then carefully collected and dried for 1 h.
From Nature ● Mar. 21, 2017
That done, they ground them up and centrifuged the result.
From Economist ● Jun. 16, 2016
She centrifuged, precipitated, filtered and stained over and over, using every qualitative procedure in the book.
From Mate in Two Moves by Winston K. Marks
Supaporn worked at a third station, centrifuging bat blood to separate the plasma.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 13, 2022
The RNA precipitate was pelleted by centrifuging at 4,000 r.p.m. for 10 min at 4 °C. The pellet was rinsed with 1 ml 70% ethanol, air dried, and dissolved in RNase-free water.
From Nature ● Oct. 10, 2017
Supernatant was removed and DNA was washed in 100 μl ice cold 70% ethanol by mixing and centrifuging for 5 min.
From Nature ● Sep. 19, 2017
Instead of centrifuging out plant proteins, “Why not just eat the vegetables?” asked Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics” and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.
From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2014
There they separated out 93 by repeating a tedious sequence of heating, evaporating, dissolving, precipitating, and centrifuging over three long days.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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