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• petri dish
  petri dish

  noun

  a shallow, circular, glass or plastic dish with a loose-fitting cover over the top and sides, used for culturing bacteria and other microorganisms.
• Petri dish
  Petri dish

  noun

  a shallow circular flat-bottomed dish, often with a fitting cover, used in laboratories, esp for producing cultures of microorganisms

petri dish

American  

[pee-tree] / ˈpi tri /

noun

1. a shallow, circular, glass or plastic dish with a loose-fitting cover over the top and sides, used for culturing bacteria and other microorganisms.

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Petri dish British  

/ ˈpɛtrɪ /

noun

1. a shallow circular flat-bottomed dish, often with a fitting cover, used in laboratories, esp for producing cultures of microorganisms

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petri dish Scientific  

/ pē′trē /

1. A shallow, circular dish with a loose cover, usually made of transparent glass or plastic and used to grow cultures of microorganisms. The petri dish is named after German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921).

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Etymology

Origin of petri dish

1890–95; named after J. R. Petri (died 1921), German bacteriologist

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

petri dish Petri dish

You’d assume that the interface—which some people describe as what you’d get if eBay and TikTok had a child—would attract younger users, who grew up in this parasocial, digital petri dish of swiping and typing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

The by-election was a petri dish that Labour had been watching closely, because if Burnham could beat Reform on that stage, it might signal that he could beat Reform in a general election.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026

I’m not ashamed to admit that there have been times when those 32-ounce tubs just stare at me day after day, haloed by the refrigerator light, moving further from consumable and closer to petri dish.

From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026

You can see the leopard print pattern in the petri dish where the phage have been making light work of a bacterial infection that modern medicine was struggling to shift.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025

Martin asks, looking up from the petri dish he's been studying intently.

From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins

It would soon be used quite extensively in Ohio, which became a Petri dish for Dorr’s line.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

Currently, the standard method for detecting bacterial infections is by trying to grow a sample of it in a Petri dish.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2025

A woodsy hike becomes a Petri dish of human nature in “Good One,” writer-director India Donaldson’s tense, revealing and exquisitely composed feature debut about a 17-year-old at the cusp of adulthood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2024

Sparks fly when a female nematode meets her mate in a Petri dish.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2024

Place the Petri dish inside the Mueller's desiccator; fill the upper chamber with pure sulphuric acid, cover with the bell jar, and exhaust the air from its interior.

From The Elements of Bacteriological Technique A Laboratory Guide for Medical, Dental, and Technical Students. Second Edition Rewritten and Enlarged. by J. W. H. (John William Henry) Eyre