telescope
Americannoun
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an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms refracting telescope, or refractor consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form reflecting telescope, or reflector has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed.
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Astronomy. Telescope, the constellation Telescopium.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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to force together, one into another, or force into something else, in the manner of the sliding tubes of a jointed telescope.
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to shorten or condense; compress.
to telescope the events of five hundred years into one history lecture.
verb (used without object)
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to slide together, or into something else, in the manner of the tubes of a jointed telescope.
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to be driven one into another, as railroad cars in a collision.
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to be or become shortened or condensed.
noun
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an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and brighter by use of a combination of lenses (refracting telescope) or lenses and curved mirrors (reflecting telescope) See also terrestrial telescope astronomical telescope Cassegrain telescope Galilean telescope Newtonian telescope
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any instrument, such as a radio telescope, for collecting, focusing, and detecting electromagnetic radiation from space
verb
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to crush together or be crushed together, as in a collision
the front of the car was telescoped by the impact
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to fit together like a set of cylinders that slide into one another, thus allowing extension and shortening
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to make or become smaller or shorter
the novel was telescoped into a short play
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An arrangement of lenses, mirrors, or both that collects visible light, allowing direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects.
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◆ A refracting telescope uses lenses to focus light to produce a magnified image. Compound lenses are used to avoid distortions such as spherical and chromatic aberrations.
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◆ A reflecting telescope uses mirrors to view celestial objects at high levels of magnification. Most large optical telescopes are reflecting telescopes because very large mirrors, which are necessary to maximize the amount of light received by the telescope, are easier to build than very large lenses.
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Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by collecting radiation other than visible light.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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telescopesimple
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telescopessimple
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have telescopedperfect
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has telescopedperfect
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am telescopingprogressive
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are telescopingprogressive
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is telescopingprogressive
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have been telescopingperfect progressive
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has been telescopingperfect progressive
Past
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telescopedsimple
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had telescopedperfect
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was telescopingprogressive
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were telescopingprogressive
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had been telescopingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of telescope
First recorded in 1610–20; tele- 1 + -scope; replacing telescopium (from New Latin ) and telescopio (from Italian ); see -ium
Explanation
A telescope is an instrument that is used to view distant objects. If you want to look at the planets, you can use a telescope. The higher the magnification on the telescope, the better your view will be. Galileo is often credited with the invention of the telescope, but this is incorrect. Although he didn't invent it, he did improve it — a lot. He didn't name the telescope either; Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani did, in 1611. Telescope is from the Greek roots tele."far," and skopos, "seeing;" so it literally describes what the instrument does. As a verb, telescope means "to become smaller through one part sliding into another," the way a portable collapsing telescope does.
Vocabulary lists containing telescope
Power Suffix: -scope
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Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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The Renaissance and Early Modern European History - Introductory
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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:
This means that when a telescope captures the light from a distant galaxy, the image does not reveal where that galaxy is today.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
Freundlich’s ambition notwithstanding, the telescope never did capture the accurate measurements it needed; other scientists would do that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
The researchers, from Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, said it was "extremely exciting" to have a non-invasive method to treat the condition, without the need to put a needle or telescope into the mother's tummy.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
A Nasa-funded spacecraft has been sent into space to catch a falling telescope.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
The real revolution in astronomy came with Tycho Brahe’s nova, with the abandonment of belief in the crystalline spheres, and with the invention of the telescope.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The observatory and its network of telescopes have been pivotal to the country's study of distant galaxies and training future astronomers.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
It is the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world, and its science was supercharged when it was connected to six other telescopes across central England, to create the e-MERLIN network.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
He also leads development of PypeIt, the software astronomers across the University of California use to process observations collected by the Keck telescopes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Earth's atmosphere naturally glows in these wavelengths, making it much harder for ground based telescopes to detect such faint objects.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Clothes, vacations, plastic surgery, telescopes, traveling circuses, radioactive spiders, trips to the moon, and then the suggestions got weird.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
But this time around, in Burkina Faso, the timetable has telescoped.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2022
There were two wheels at one end and a handle that telescoped out from the base at the other.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 18, 2018
The result, “Conical Intersect,” was a giant tunnel that telescoped down through the building, widening as it went.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2018
If everything can be telescoped on to him, that would be better all round.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2017
The entire fifty-foot pedestal telescoped downward into a spiral staircase.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
For the encore, they cleared the perimeter of the stadium floor and drove around on giant, telescoping platforms, trailed by inflatable characters, like they were in a Macy's Day parade.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
Then we step forward — you can think of telescoping in on finer and finer timescales — we get from the billion year timescale to the hundreds of millions year timescale.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2023
And enveloping almost every single one of those tampons is a telescoping cardboard applicator.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
This trait formed what Ella and I came to call a telescoping process, with parts stretching back across time, marking the discontinuity between past and present, and then collapsing it.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2023
And then, while writing, a new and thrilling relationship would spring up under the drive of emotion, coalescing and telescoping alien facts into a known and felt truth.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
