microscopic
[mahy-kruh-skop-ik]
- so small as to be invisible or indistinct without the use of the microscope: microscopic organisms.Compare macroscopic.
- very small; tiny.
- of, relating to, or involving a microscope: microscopic investigation.
- very detailed; meticulous: a microscopic view of society.
- suggestive of the precise use of the microscope; minute: microscopic exactness.
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Also mi·cro·scop·i·cal.
Origin of microscopic
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
imperceptibleteenyinfinitesimalnegligibleatomicinvisibleminusculediminutivelittleminuteweeExamples from the Web for microscopic
Contemporary Examples
Other methane is exhaled by microscopic organisms directly, as in the human gut.
After all, not every county medical examiner can spot CTE on microscopic slides.
But there is another curiosity about the microscopic attention that is paid to civilian casualties.
U.S. Drone Program Needs to Be Accompanied by Hard Facts on Civilian DeathsDaniel Klaidman
November 8, 2013
How could anyone do all this without leaving behind a scintilla of microscopic evidence?
The microscopic attention paid to her stumbles likely has much to do with that impossible yardstick of perfection.
Historical Examples
The Ma was at least half the size of the slate, while Heman was microscopic; but, alas!
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
You have had time to examine your prize in microscopic fashion.
The Gorgeous GirlNalbro Bartley
The microscopic test of the distribution of alkali in the blood.
Histology of the BloodPaul Ehrlich
He sees human nature with an eye which is at once broad and microscopic.
My Contemporaries In FictionDavid Christie Murray
The entire box was filled with notes in German in a microscopic hand.
The Forbidden TrailHonor Willsie
microscopic
less commonly microscopical
- not large enough to be seen with the naked eye but visible under a microscopeCompare macroscopic
- very small; minute
- of, concerned with, or using a microscope
- characterized by or done with great attention to detail
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for microscopic
adj.
1732, "like a microscope;" see microscope + -ic. Meaning "of minute size" is from 1760s. Related: Microscopical; microscopically.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
microscopic
(mī′krə-skŏp′ĭk)- Too small to be seen by the unaided eye but large enough to be studied under a microscope.
- Of, relating to, or concerned with a microscope.
- Being or characterized as exceedingly small; minute.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.