museum
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of museum
1605–15; < Latin mūsēum place sacred to the Muses, building devoted to learning or the arts (referring especially to the scholarly institute founded in Alexandria about 280 b.c.) < Greek Mouseîon, equivalent to Moûs ( a ) Muse + -eion suffix of place
Explanation
A museum is a place where interesting objects are displayed — like paintings, historical documents, and dinosaur skeletons. There are all kinds of museums. Art museums are some of the most well-known, such as the Louvre in Paris. The Natural History Museum, with its dinosaur skeletons and stuffed bears and lions, is one of New York's most famous. In Washington, DC, the Smithsonian is a group of impressive museums. Around the country, there are museums dedicated to sports, African-American culture, spies, and just about everything else. At any museum, you'll find a lot of tourists.
Vocabulary lists containing museum
"A Suitcase of Seaweed" and "Immigrants Today"
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Unit 5
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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.
"It's taken a lot of DNA sequencing to fully identify this fungus," he says, showing me dead moss under a microscope in a lab at Amgueddfa Cymru museum.
From BBC • May 30, 2026
This fall, she is set to open Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel and a museum in downtown Nashville near the city’s famed honky-tonks.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026
This includes school groups, which visit the museum at a rate six times higher than the Center originally anticipated when it first opened in 1997, a Getty spokesperson said.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
Researchers from Germany and the Seychelles investigated the evolutionary history of the saltwater crocodile by comparing DNA from modern animals with genetic material taken from historical museum specimens.
From Science Daily • May 28, 2026
The museum was filled with all the stuff they carved.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
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.
