centrifuge
Americannoun
-
centrifuges
plural
verb (used with object)
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centrifuges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
centrifuged,
past participle, past
-
centrifuging
present participle
noun
-
any of various rotating machines that separate liquids from solids or dispersions of one liquid in another, by the action of centrifugal force
-
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
-
centrifugesimple
-
centrifugessimple
-
have centrifugedperfect
-
has centrifugedperfect
-
am centrifugingprogressive
-
are centrifugingprogressive
-
is centrifugingprogressive
-
have been centrifugingperfect progressive
-
has been centrifugingperfect progressive
Past
-
centrifugedsimple
-
had centrifugedperfect
-
was centrifugingprogressive
-
were centrifugingprogressive
-
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:
The accord permitted Iran to conduct centrifuge research after 8 1/2 years, a concession that meant that when the 15 years expired, Iran could be ready to mass-produce enriched uranium with more advanced machines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Another unanticipated threat in Iraq that could have had deadly consequences involved gas centrifuge technology used to make weapons-grade uranium.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026
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
The craters are believed to be above underground buildings housing centrifuge halls, where uranium enrichment takes place.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2025
Our centrifuge had a huge electric motor and a fifty-foot arm with a simulated spacecraft on its end.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
Tehran has previously indicated that it may be a replacement for a building within the Natanz complex used for the assembly of advanced centrifuges that was damaged after a suspected sabotage operation in July 2020.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
"It is plausible that high value items, such as uranium gas centrifuges, were brought into and stored within the tunnels," says Faragasso.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
It isn’t clear whether U.S. munitions could penetrate deeply enough into the site to destroy the centrifuges if they are buried there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
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
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
Tubes were mixed by inverting and centrifuged at 16,000g for 20 min.
From Nature ● Sep. 19, 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
She centrifuged, precipitated, filtered and stained over and over, using every qualitative procedure in the book.
From Mate in Two Moves by Winston K. Marks
Supaporn worked at a third station, centrifuging bat blood to separate the plasma.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 13, 2022
The RNA precipitate was pelleted by centrifuging at 4,000 r.p.m. for 10 min at 4 °C. The pellet was rinsed with 1 ml 70% ethanol, air dried, and dissolved in RNase-free water.
From Nature ● Oct. 10, 2017
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
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.
