microscopic
Meaningseen only small
Common meaning: too small to be seen by eye alone
- microlittle, smallLiddell & Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (1889), p. 513 (approximate) · scan
- scopto look at closely, watchLiddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1883), p. 1402 · scan
- icadjective ending: relating to
‘little, small’ + ‘to look at closely, watch’ → microscopic
Journey through time
- micro — Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós) “little, small” (path traced)
- scop — Greek σκοπέω “to look at closely, watch” (path traced)
- Greekμικρός (mikrós) + σκοπέω‘little, small + to look at closely, watch’
- Englishmicroscopic‘too small to be seen by eye alone’ · today
micro also in: microcosmmicrogrammicrophonemicroscopemicroinject
scop also in: periscopestethoscopemicroscopically
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Built on Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós) ‘little, small’ + Greek σκοπέω ‘to look at closely, watch’.
Did you know (Greek skopein, to…): our wording, based on Liddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1883), entry σκοπέω, p. 1402 · dictionary scan
Did you know (Greek mikros, small,…): our wording, based on Liddell & Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (1889), entry μικρός (mikrós), p. 513 · dictionary scan; Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry MICROCOSM, p. 366 · dictionary scan
Roots
- μικρός (mikrós) Ancient Greek “little, small”
- σκοπέω Greek “to look at closely, watch”
Related words
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