petri dish

American  

[pee-tree] / ˈpi tri /

noun

1. a shallow, circular, glass or plastic dish with a loose-fitting cover over the top and sides, used for culturing bacteria and other microorganisms.

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Petri dish British  

/ ˈpɛtrɪ /

noun

1. a shallow circular flat-bottomed dish, often with a fitting cover, used in laboratories, esp for producing cultures of microorganisms

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petri dish Scientific  

/ pē′trē /

1. A shallow, circular dish with a loose cover, usually made of transparent glass or plastic and used to grow cultures of microorganisms. The petri dish is named after German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921).

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Etymology

Origin of petri dish

1890–95; named after J. R. Petri (died 1921), German bacteriologist

Example Sentences

A pilot friend who is crossing the Atlantic from the Canary Islands in a sailboat this month called cruise ships a “floating petri dish.‘

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2025

You can see the leopard print pattern in the petri dish where the phage have been making light work of a bacterial infection that modern medicine was struggling to shift.

From BBC • Jun. 27, 2025

At that time, experiments were conducted on tumour cells in a petri dish.

From Science Daily • Jun. 19, 2024

But in a Crichton novel, that petri dish must be messed with.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2024

Martin asks, looking up from the petri dish he's been studying intently.

From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins