optical microscope

American  

[ahp-tik-uhl mahy-kruh-skohp] / ˈɑp tɪk əl ˈmaɪ krəˌskoʊp /

noun

optical microscopes plural

1. a microscope using visible light rather than other forms of radiation such as infrared or x-rays.

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optical microscope Scientific  

1. See under microscope

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• optical microscopy
  noun
• optical microscopic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

noun

• optical microscopes
  plural

Example Sentences

The team also used the extreme localization of the narwhal-shaped wavefunctions to create a new near-field scanning optical microscopy technique called the singular optical microscope.

From Science Daily • May 21, 2026

And unlike the quartz discs, which stored data digitally, the nickel sheets can be read using a standard optical microscope, magnified up to 1,000 times.

From The Verge • May 15, 2018

Once back in London, he and Dodd peered at very thin slices of the rocks, first with an optical microscope, then with a laser-based device called a Raman microscope.

From Washington Post • Mar. 1, 2017

The TEM is similar to the optical microscope, but it requires a thin sample examined in a vacuum.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

The molecules are huge; they can be seen with an ordinary optical microscope, and a microscopically visible molecule is a curious-looking object, to say the least.

From Four-Day Planet by Piper, H. Beam