submicroscopic

American  

[suhb-mahy-kruh-skop-ik] / ˌsʌb maɪ krəˈskɒp ɪk /

Sometimes submicroscopical

adjective

1. too small to be seen through a microscope.

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submicroscopic British  

/ ˌsʌbmaɪkrəˈskɒpɪk /

adjective

1. too small to be seen through an optical microscope

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Other Word Forms

• submicroscopically adverb

Etymology

Origin of submicroscopic

sub- + microscopic

Example Sentences

She and her colleagues have previously used such an approach to view submicroscopic shapes like letters or stars.

From Science Daily • Dec. 4, 2023

Still later, a virus was thought to be a submicroscopic agent, bearing only a very small genome, that replicated inside living cells—but that was just a first step toward a better understanding.

From National Geographic • Jan. 14, 2021

Thirty years and $1 billion in the planning and making, the three laboratories use laser light, bouncing between mirrors in L-shaped arms, to detect submicroscopic stretching and compressing of space-time as gravitational waves pass by.

From New York Times • Sep. 2, 2020

After finalizing the design, the researchers plan to assemble the instrument in 2021 and start harnessing lasers to expand submicroscopic strontium atoms into macroscale “atom waves” soon after.

From Scientific American • Jan. 14, 2020

I was raised in the belief that these were obscure little engines inside my cells, owned and operated by me or my cellular delegates, private, submicroscopic bits of my intelligent flesh.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas