: a microscope consisting of an objective and an eyepiece mounted in a drawtube
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebIn 1677 Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist and inventor of the first compound microscope, finally gave into peer pressure from his colleagues and used the tool to examine his own semen. Courtney Sexton, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 July 2020 Spring Branch Academic Institute - The biology/science classroom will add two digital stereomicroscopes and an advanced compound microscope to its lab.Houston Chronicle, 7 June 2019 Invented in the 16th century, the compound microscope did not contribute to scientific breakthroughs for 70 years. Lloyd Minor, Fortune, 5 June 2018 Around 1590, the father-son team Hans and Zacharias Janssen invented a compound microscope, with lenses at two ends of a tube, producing a nine-power enlargement. Doug Main, The Atlantic, 7 Apr. 2018 The person with the dubious honor of being the first to study sperm in detail was Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutchman who developed the early compound microscope. Laura Poppick, Smithsonian, 7 June 2017
Word History
First Known Use
circa 1859, in the meaning defined above
Medical Definition
compound microscope
noun
: a microscope consisting of an objective and an eyepiece mounted in a telescoping tube