ultramicroscope

American  

[uhl-truh-mahy-kruh-skohp] / ˌʌl trəˈmaɪ krəˌskoʊp /

noun

1. an instrument that uses scattering phenomena to detect the position of objects too small to be seen by an ordinary microscope.

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ultramicroscope British  

/ ˌʌltrəˈmaɪkrəˌskəʊp /

noun

1. Also called: dark-field microscope.  a microscope used for studying colloids, in which the sample is strongly illuminated from the side and colloidal particles are seen as bright points on a dark background

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Other Word Forms

• ultramicroscopic adjective
• ultramicroscopical adjective

Etymology

Origin of ultramicroscope

First recorded in 1905–10; ultra- + microscope

Example Sentences

Professor Wilder Dwight Bancroft, authoritative student of colloid chemistry, and Dr. G. Holmes Richter, research fellow, have been using an ultramicroscope on living sensory nerves.

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week plump-cheeked Dr. Zworykin announced that his iconoscope was ready for use as the "eye" of a powerful ultramicroscope.

From Time Magazine Archive

Microscopists have sneaked considerably beyond the Abbe limit with an instrument called the ultramicroscope, in which very small particles are strongly illuminated from the side.

From Time Magazine Archive

Are they germs too small to see with the microscope or the ultramicroscope?

From Time Magazine Archive

What I saw through that ultramicroscope was not an unproven theory, but a fact.

From The Girl in the Golden Atom by Cummings, Ray