laboratory

American  

[lab-ruh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, lab-er-uh-, luh-bor-uh-tuh-ree, -uh-tree] / ˈlæb rəˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i, ˈlæb ər ə-, ləˈbɒr ə tə ri, -ə tri /

noun

• laboratories
  plural

1. a building, part of a building, or other place equipped to conduct scientific experiments, tests, investigations, etc., or to manufacture chemicals, medicines, or the like.

2. any place, situation, set of conditions, or the like, conducive to experimentation, investigation, observation, etc.; anything suggestive of a scientific laboratory.

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adjective

1. serving a function in a laboratory.

2. relating to techniques of work in a laboratory.

   laboratory methods; laboratory research.

laboratory British  

/ ləˈbɒrətərɪ, ˈlæbrəˌtɔːrɪ, -trɪ /

noun

1. 1. a building or room equipped for conducting scientific research or for teaching practical science

   2. ( as modifier )

      laboratory equipment

2. a place where chemicals or medicines are manufactured

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• laboratorian
  noun
• interlaboratory
  adjective
• laboratorial
  adjective
• laboratorially
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• laboratories
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of laboratory

1595–1605; < Medieval Latin labōrātōrium workshop, equivalent to Latin labōrā ( re ) to labor + -tōrium -tory ²

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Explanation

A laboratory is a place where experiments happen, usually scientific experiments involving chemicals and lab coats, but there are creative and athletic laboratories too, where people experiment with writing and footballs. When you think of a laboratory, you might see men and women wearing face masks pouring colorful liquids into test tubes, and you’d be correct. Any place that is a testing ground for new ideas is a laboratory, like a class full of people thinking up new ways to make paper airplanes. The Latin verb laborare means “to labor,” so remember that a laboratory is a place of hard work: you can’t spell laboratory without labor in it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

laboratory laboratories

His laboratory is now investigating whether the same approach could help treat endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory condition affecting approximately one in 10 women.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Rather than trying to manufacture large numbers of mature macrophages, first author Shi Yue, MD, of Ying's laboratory and his colleagues concentrated on GMPs, the progenitor cells that can produce macrophages.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

The researchers developed a precisely defined mixture of chemicals that allowed GMPs to survive and multiply for extended periods in the laboratory.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

"Let the Himalayas become a laboratory of international co-operation rather than a frontier of fragmented information," he said.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

This is like the test that was done in the laboratory.

From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga

However, many earlier investigations took place in controlled laboratories and examined relatively brief periods, sometimes measuring the effects of exercise over a single night.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

Scientists from the laboratories of Alex K. Shalek, director of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and Matthew Vander Heiden, director of the Koch Institute, also participated in the work.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

At Nepal's two forensic laboratories, both in Kathmandu, experts are working to profile samples and build a database on a scale they have never handled before.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

Competition promotes the discovery of what nobody sitting in Washington or even in today’s leading AI laboratories knows to look for.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

The Unitary Plan Tunnel had come online in 1955, funded by legislation to build state-of-the-art wind tunnels at each of the NACA’s three main laboratories.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

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Related Words

• lab
• workshop

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