laboratory - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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From Medieval Latin labōrātōrium.

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ləˈbɒɹət(ə)ɹi/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈlæb(ə)ɹəˌtɔɹi/, /ləˈbɔɹəˌtɔɹi/
  • (Canada) IPA(key): /ˈlæbɹəˌtɔɹi/, /ləˈbɔɹəˌtɔɹi/, /ləˈbɔɹətɹi/
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ləˈbɔɹ.ə.tɹiː/, /ˈlɛb.ɹəˌtoːɹ.iː/

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.

room, building or institution equipped for scientific research

place where chemicals, drugs or microbes are prepared or manufactured