Also called Japanese isinglass, Japanese gelatin, Chinese gelatin, Chinese isinglass. Also agar-agar. a gelatinlike product of certain seaweeds, used for solidifying certain culture media, as a thickening agent for ice cream and other foods, as a substitute for gelatin, in adhesives, as an emulsifier, etc.
Biology. a culture medium having an agar base.
First recorded in 1885–90, agar is from the Malay word agaragar seaweed from which a gelatin is rendered, or the gelatin itself
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a recent paper in the journal Infection and Immunity, her group describes a product called organ agar that could be deployed to more efficiently screen bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023
Furthermore, organ agar could enable researchers without access to animal models to create physiologically relevant models of infection or colonization and allow for more efficient screening of bacterial and other microorganism candidates for further study.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023
Limoncello “pearls” created with the help of lemon and agar agar.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 24, 2023
Chloe swabs parts of her body, or plants, and transfers the samples to petri dishes with a special growth medium inside called agar.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2022
We can imagine them, curious and dispassionate, observing us, as we would watch a bacterial culture in a dish of agar, to determine whether, this year again, we manage to avoid self- destruction.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
"It was huge because it was so unexpected," Agar says.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
The initial plan was for Agar to play some club cricket for Henley in the Home Counties League, then join the Australia A tour.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
Agar could have been stumped on six off Swann, but got the benefit of a hairline decision.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
"It was everything I'd seen on TV," says Agar.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
When I got home from school that afternoon, both of my parents were sitting in the living room with Dr. Agar and Miss Winthrop.
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
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.
