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laboratory

laboratory

33 3.9
A place where people try out new ideas or methods
  • noun
  • /ˈlæbəˌrɔːtəri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : laboratorio
  • Both the teachers and principals engage in laboratory activities and demonstrations appropriate for particular grade levels.
  • a laboratory to test
  • laboratories of democracy
  • a social laboratory

And there's a more formal and more laboratory type way that we look at this.

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Examples

  • And so here we have one of the largest hospital systems in America we're going to use as a laboratory for the entire country.

  • The recommendations included the use of laboratories in science teaching.

    Academic text (2011)
  • What would we do in terms of growing them up under laboratory conditions?

  • But there was a sense in the laboratory that this was the wave of the future.

  • It's got to be opened under laboratory conditions.

  • Let's turn back to the laboratory and see what are the results.

  • To sustain this vision of an educational community, we must be a living laboratory in another sense as well.

  • All that aside, for six years, you guys have sat almost like in a laboratory of how do consumers react and to what?

  • Problem-based instruction, or reality-based learning, uses the classroom as a laboratory for offering practical solutions to world issues.

    Academic text (2008)
  • The new policy was tested in several cities acting as a laboratory for innovative urban design.

Synonyms

testing ground
vslaboratory
5 3.7

A place where people try new ideas or products to see if they work

is an environment more about trying and evaluating than strict controlled setup
testbed
vslaboratory
  • Specialized
1 6.0

A place set up to try new ideas or products before they are used more widely

is a broader experimental environment for observation and practice rather than only controlled tests

Compounds

A place where scientists do experiments to learn about science

A room or building where people do experiments, research, and teach science

A room or building with equipment for doing experiments and teaching physics

biology laboratory
  • Specialized
1 3.8

A room with equipment for doing experiments about living things

defense laboratory
  • Specialized
1 4.9

A place where people do research to help a country's military

laboratory glassware
  • Specialized
1 3.7

Glass items like beakers, flasks and test tubes used in labs for experiments

A group in the United States Navy that studies science and builds new technology

space laboratory
  • Specialized
1 4.9

A spacecraft in orbit where people live and do science experiments

chemistry laboratory
  • Specialized
3.5

A room for doing experiments with chemicals for teaching or research

A United States Air Force group that researches and develops new aircraft and space technology

laboratory bench
  • Specialized
3.7

A strong table in a lab where people do experiments

laboratory coat
  • Specialized
3.6

A light protective piece of clothing worn over clothes in a lab

The main Army lab that tests evidence for criminal cases

A place that studies science and builds technology for the United States Navy

A laboratory in the United States Army that tests evidence to help criminal investigations

How Experimental

piloting
  • Specialized
1 4.8
laboratory
  • Specialized
33 3.9
setting
317 3.2

Surface Forms

laboratory singular
laboratories plural
laboratories plural
laboratoires plural
laboratories plural
labouratory singular
laboratoire singular
laboratory singular

Morphology

laboratory = labor (opaque) = labor + atory

Although the word is historically built from labor + -atory, the figurative 'experimental environment' sense is a conventional extension that is not directly recoverable from the morphemes alone.

Etymology

Laboratory also keeps that idea of a 'place for work and testing', which is why we call a city, school, or team a laboratory when people try new ideas there.