centrifuge
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
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any of various rotating machines that separate liquids from solids or dispersions of one liquid in another, by the action of centrifugal force
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any of various rotating devices for subjecting human beings or animals to varying accelerations for experimental purposes
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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centrifugesimple
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centrifugessimple
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have centrifugedperfect
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has centrifugedperfect
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am centrifugingprogressive
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are centrifugingprogressive
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is centrifugingprogressive
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have been centrifugingperfect progressive
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has been centrifugingperfect progressive
Past
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centrifugedsimple
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had centrifugedperfect
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was centrifugingprogressive
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were centrifugingprogressive
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had been centrifugingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of centrifuge
1795–1805; < French, noun use of centrifuge (adj.) < New Latin centrifugus center-fleeing; see centrifugal
Explanation
That ride at the fair that spins you around until you stick to the walls? The device in your washing machine that spins your clothes around quickly to get the water out of them? Those are centrifuges. Centrifuges are used mostly in science. In this application, centrifugal force — the force from spinning that moves things away from the center — separates liquids that have different weights. For example, a centrifuge is used to separate blood cells from plasma cells. When the blood is spun in the centrifuge, the heavier plasma cells separate from the lighter blood cells, and can be collected for other uses.
Vocabulary lists containing centrifuge
100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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This Week In Words: November 14–20, 2020
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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:
By using a specially designed optical centrifuge, the team was able to precisely spin molecules suspended in liquid helium nano-droplets, giving scientists a powerful new tool for exploring these unusual frictionless materials.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 4, 2026
Spang solved this by processing the liquid precursor of the hydrogel in a centrifuge.
From Science Daily ● May 5, 2026
He built a rotating centrifuge to simulate gravity, engineered elaborate model work, and collaborated on the now-legendary slit-scan technique that produced the “Stargate” sequence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 10, 2025
Stephen was then extubated and woken up, and then he rested for an hour before his blood was drained and spun through a centrifuge for six hours to separate out the stem cells.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025
“But did she like centrifuge you together or something?”
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Traditional optical centrifuges have been used to spin molecules in gases by exposing them to a rotating laser pulse.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 4, 2026
But Iran still likely has centrifuges and a site deep underground where it may be able to enrich uranium, experts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
His administration accelerated a computer attack called Stuxnet designed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program by forcing centrifuges to spin until they self-destructed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 28, 2026
Centrus Energy is expanding a manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., investing more than $560 million to produce thousands of advanced centrifuges for its uranium enrichment plant in Ohio, which it’s also expanding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Star City contains full-size mock-ups of spacecraft, a hydro-laboratory large enough for a 20-ton space module, special aircraft that simulate weightlessness, two centrifuges, and a planetarium with the capacity to show 9,000 stars.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
The DNA was centrifuged at high speeds in an ultracentrifuge.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Samples were vortexed for 10 min at 4 °C and centrifuged at 13,000 r.p.m. for 10 min at 4 °C. The lower lipid-containing layer was then carefully collected and dried for 1 h.
From Nature ● Mar. 21, 2017
That done, they ground them up and centrifuged the result.
From Economist ● Jun. 16, 2016
So, on Monday, Richards received a stem-cell shot, centrifuged from his own bone marrow, into his elbow.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2016
The crystals are then transferred to a small laboratory centrifuge and centrifuged for several minutes.
From Organic Syntheses by Conant, James Bryant
Supaporn worked at a third station, centrifuging bat blood to separate the plasma.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 13, 2022
Supernatant was removed and DNA was washed in 100 μl ice cold 70% ethanol by mixing and centrifuging for 5 min.
From Nature ● Sep. 19, 2017
Prior to microinjection, the ribonucleoprotein complex was prepared by centrifuging the Cas9 protein for 1 min at 14,000 r.p.m. at 4 °C and transferring the supernatant to a fresh tube containing the sgRNA.
From Nature ● Sep. 19, 2017
Instead of centrifuging out plant proteins, “Why not just eat the vegetables?” asked Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics” and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.
From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2014
There they separated out 93 by repeating a tedious sequence of heating, evaporating, dissolving, precipitating, and centrifuging over three long days.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
