laboratory

English

Wikiversity

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin labōrātōrium.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ləˈbɒɹət(ə)ɹi/
    • Audio (UK):(file)
    • Audio (UK):(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈlæb(ə)ɹəˌtɔɹi/, /ləˈbɔɹəˌtɔɹi/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Canada) IPA(key): /ˈlæbɹəˌtɔɹi/, /ləˈbɔɹəˌtɔɹi/, /ləˈbɔɹətɹi/
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ləˈbɔɹ.ə.tɹiː/, /ˈlɛb.ɹəˌtoːɹ.iː/
  • Hyphenation: lab‧or‧a‧to‧ry

Noun

laboratory (plural laboratories)

  1. A room, building or institution equipped for scientific research, experimentation or analysis.
  2. A place where chemicals, drugs or microbes are prepared or manufactured.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Laboratory”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. [], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, [], →OCLC, page 325:
      Again she read the passage that had riveted her attention; and, rising from her seat, carried the still open volume, and laid it on a slab by the furnace in the laboratory: it was a celebrated treatise on poisons, written in the fifteenth century.
    • 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:
      [Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.

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