Leeuwenhoek

American  

[ley-vuhn-hook, ley-y-wuhn-hook] / ˈleɪ vənˌhʊk, ˈleɪ ü wənˌhuk /

Or Leuwenhoek

noun

1. Anton van 1632–1723, Dutch naturalist and microscopist.

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Leeuwenhoek British  

/ ˈleːwənhuːk, ˈleɪvənˌhuːk /

noun

1. Anton van (ˈɑntɔn vɑn). 1632–1723, Dutch microscopist, whose microscopes enabled him to give the first accurate description of blood corpuscles, spermatozoa, and microbes

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Leeuwenhoek Scientific  

/ lā′vən-hk′ /

1. Dutch naturalist and pioneer of microscopic research. He was the first to describe protozoa, bacteria, and spermatozoa. He also made observations of yeasts, red blood cells, and blood capillaries, and traced the life histories of various animals, including the flea, ant, and weevil.

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Example Sentences

Ever since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered the world of bacteria through a microscope in the late seventeenth century, humans have tried to look deeper into the world of the infinitesimally small.

From Science Daily • Oct. 18, 2023

At the same time, Leeuwenhoek mostly continued with his careers as a draper and a world-renowned expert on developing microscopes.

From Salon • Jan. 2, 2023

While Leeuwenhoek never wrote any books, he detailed his findings in letters published by a scientific journal known as the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

From Salon • Jan. 2, 2023

Despite the limitations of his now-ancient lenses, van Leeuwenhoek observed the movements of single-celled organisms, which he collectively termed “animalcules.”

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Leeuwenhoek and Huygens were among the first people ever to see human sperm cells, a prerequisite for understanding human reproduction.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan