laboratory

[lab-ruh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, lab-er-uh-, luh-bor-uh-tuh-ree, -uh-tree]

noun

plural

laboratories 

1. a building, part of a building, or other place equipped to conduct scientific experiments, tests, investigations, etc., or to manufacture chemicals, medicines, or the like.

2. any place, situation, set of conditions, or the like, conducive to experimentation, investigation, observation, etc.; anything suggestive of a scientific laboratory.

adjective

1. serving a function in a laboratory.

2. relating to techniques of work in a laboratory.

   laboratory methods; laboratory research.

laboratory

/ -trɪ, ləˈbɒrətərɪ, ˈlæbrəˌtɔːrɪ /

noun

1. 1. a building or room equipped for conducting scientific research or for teaching practical science

   2. ( as modifier )

      laboratory equipment

2. a place where chemicals or medicines are manufactured

Other Word Forms

• laboratorial adjective
• laboratorially adverb
• laboratorian noun
• interlaboratory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of laboratory¹

1595–1605; < Medieval Latin labōrātōrium workshop, equivalent to Latin labōrā ( re ) to labor + -tōrium -tory ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of laboratory¹

C17: from Medieval Latin labōrātōrium workshop, from Latin labōrāre to _labour

Example Sentences

Australia's under-16 social media ban will make the nation a real-life laboratory on how best to tackle the technology's impact on young people, experts say.

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He's laboratory focuses on how environmental stressors, including UV radiation and arsenic in drinking water, disrupt molecular pathways and damage cellular systems in ways that promote cancer.

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To explore this relationship, the team combined nationwide health registry information from all Danish children and their parents with controlled laboratory studies.

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Field and laboratory research in Ethiopia was made possible through the support of the Ethiopian Heritage Authority.

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Possible solutions include producing large amounts of islet cells in the laboratory from pluripotent human stem cells or developing methods that help transplanted donor islets survive longer and function more efficiently after transplantation.

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Related Words

• lab 
• workshop