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  

/ -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

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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

There is, however, a distinction between investigating whether a laboratory accident might have occurred and claiming that scientists created a virus and intentionally released it.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026

In 1876, he built the country’s first industrial research laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, for $2,500, paid for with money earned from his telegraph inventions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Not long before McCarthy’s speech, the purported Russian spy Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury and atomic physicist Klaus Fuchs was unmasked as a Russian spy embedded in the Los Alamos atomic bomb laboratory.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

With measures such as the court hearing at the laboratory, increased surveillance and intelligence use, the Nigerian authorities are adamant they can rise to the challenge.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

Later in the nineteenth century, scientists will discover that a weak electrical current applied to the exposed brain of a laboratory animal will make certain muscles twitch involuntarily and certain senses sharpen or go dead.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman

The artificial intelligence laboratories now under discussion in Brussels and Washington exist because the regulatory environment was thin when they were founded, closer to Edison’s Menlo Park than to today’s pharmaceutical sector.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

The work also reflects FRIB's larger partnership with national laboratories, which encourages the exchange of knowledge between fundamental research and national security applications.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

At field stations and in Stanford laboratories, the scientists measured how much oxygen each organism consumed under different water temperatures.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

What remains that haven’t been scavenged have decomposed to the point where DNA analysis is difficult and all but useless in Gaza, where there are no functioning laboratories able to test and compare samples.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

In 1926 and 1928, Loomis and Wood sailed to Europe to tour its great laboratories.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• lab
• workshop