laboratory

American  

[lab-ruh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, lab-er-uh-, luh-bor-uh-tuh-ree, -uh-tree] / ˈlæb rəˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i, ˈlæb ər ə-, ləˈbɒr ə tə ri, -ə tri /

noun

• laboratories
  plural

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.

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adjective

1. serving a function in a laboratory.

2. relating to techniques of work in a laboratory.

   laboratory methods; laboratory research.

laboratory British  

/ ləˈbɒrətərɪ, ˈlæbrəˌtɔːrɪ, -trɪ /

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• laboratories
  plural

Etymology

Origin of laboratory

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

Explanation

A laboratory is a place where experiments happen, usually scientific experiments involving chemicals and lab coats, but there are creative and athletic laboratories too, where people experiment with writing and footballs. When you think of a laboratory, you might see men and women wearing face masks pouring colorful liquids into test tubes, and you’d be correct. Any place that is a testing ground for new ideas is a laboratory, like a class full of people thinking up new ways to make paper airplanes. The Latin verb laborare means “to labor,” so remember that a laboratory is a place of hard work: you can’t spell laboratory without labor in it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

laboratory laboratories

A laboratory could still buy the chips, complete the training run and incur most of the associated data-center expense.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

Using a laboratory system containing human intestinal tissue, they tested both sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026

Officials have not yet ascertained the full geographical extent of the latest outbreak, with surveillance and laboratory investigations ongoing.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

But the laboratory results are not the whole story.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026

In the laboratory, I did not truly understand the concepts of night and day.

From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga

Existing models and agents would remain available if laboratories merely delayed the next generation.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

His plan begins with independent evaluators inside frontier AI laboratories, followed by common safety standards among companies in democratic countries and, eventually, international coordination.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

"Thankfully, nature has provided us with magnetars, which are the perfect cosmic laboratories to go looking for this effect."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026

Letting state laboratories of democracy experiment is a good start at reform.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

He sent some tubes of frozen serum to laboratories for testing—to the National Institute of Virology in Sandringham, South Af- rica, and to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Related Words

• lab
• workshop