petri dish

noun

pe·​tri dish ˈpē-trē- 

variants or less commonly Petri dish

plural petri dishes also Petri dishes

1

: a small shallow usually round dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for growing cells or microorganisms on a supportive medium (such as agar combined with nutrients)

… the protein extracted from human cancer cells could stimulate the growth of blood vessels in experiments with chicken embryos and tumor cells growing in petri dishes.

—Tina Hesman

Unfortunately, most laboratories can diagnose tuberculosis with certainty, or exclude it, only by placing sputum in a petri dish and waiting to see if the bacterium grows …

—The New York Times

… they found that the compound, sulforaphane, fights cancer in petri dishes.

—Doug Levy

2

: something (such as a place or situation) that fosters development

Of course being there for your team tends to contaminate your team. Our radio studio is currently a petri dish of disease.

—Matt Heath

"We view universities as a community's most promising petri dish for innovation," said Abby Taubner …

—Alex Wittenberg

MTV's The Real World, which sends seven attractive young strangers to spend six months turning their luxury housing into a Petri dish of sexual, racial, and interpersonal tension, has been running since 1992.

—Francine Prose

Examples of petri dish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

From an overhead shelf, Santos retrieved two petri dishes that each contained five beige moth larvae. —Dhruv Khullar, The New Yorker, 13 June 2024

Penicillin’s discovery was spurred from mold spores that accidentally landed in a petri dish. —Quanta Magazine, 6 June 2024

First, Levin trained these worms to get over their fear of light by dribbling a delicious liver snack into an illuminated section of their petri dishes. —Sigal Samuel, Vox, 4 June 2024

Infectious agents can also spread via petri dishes or other equipment. —Larry Brilliant, Foreign Affairs, 20 Dec. 2022

Word History

Etymology

Julius R. Petri †1921 German bacteriologist

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Petri dish

noun

Pe·​tri dish

ˌpē-trē-

: a small shallow dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for cultures of bacteria

Medical Definition

petri dish

noun

pe·​tri dish

variants also Petri dish

ˈpē-trē- 

: a small shallow usually round dish of thin glass or plastic with a loose cover used especially for growing cells on a supportive medium (such as agar combined with nutrients)