Search Result for "culture_medium":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. (bacteriology) a nutrient substance (solid or liquid) that is used to cultivate micro-organisms;
[syn: culture medium, medium]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Medium \Me"di*um\, n.; pl. L. Media, E. Mediums. [L. medium the middle, fr. medius middle. See Mid, and cf. Medius.] 1. That which lies in the middle, or between other things; intervening body or quantity. Hence, specifically: (a) Middle place or degree; mean. [1913 Webster] The just medium . . . lies between pride and abjection. --L'Estrange. [1913 Webster] (b) (Math.) See Mean. (c) (Logic) The mean or middle term of a syllogism; that by which the extremes are brought into connection. [1913 Webster] 2. A substance through which an effect is transmitted from one thing to another; as, air is the common medium of sound. Hence: The condition upon which any event or action occurs; necessary means of motion or action; that through or by which anything is accomplished, conveyed, or carried on; specifically, in animal magnetism, spiritualism, etc., a person through whom the action of another being is said to be manifested and transmitted. [1913 Webster] Whether any other liquors, being made mediums, cause a diversity of sound from water, it may be tried. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] I must bring together All these extremes; and must remove all mediums. --Denham. [1913 Webster] 3. An average. [R.] [1913 Webster] A medium of six years of war, and six years of peace. --Burke. [1913 Webster] 4. A trade name for printing and writing paper of certain sizes. See Paper. [1913 Webster] 5. (Paint.) The liquid vehicle with which dry colors are ground and prepared for application. [1913 Webster] 6. (Microbiology) A source of nutrients in which a microorganism is placed to permit its growth, cause it to produce substances, or observe its activity under defined conditions; also called culture medium or growth medium. The medium is usually a solution of nutrients in water, or a similar solution solidified with gelatin or agar. [PJC] 7. A means of transmission of news, advertising, or other messages from an information source to the public, also called a news medium, such as a newspaper or radio; used mostly in the plural form, i. e. news media or media. See 1st media[2]. [PJC] Circulating medium, a current medium of exchange, whether coin, bank notes, or government notes. Ethereal medium (Physics), the ether. Medium of exchange, that which is used for effecting an exchange of commodities -- money or current representatives of money. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Culture \Cul"ture\ (k?l"t?r; 135), n. [F. culture, L. cultura, fr. colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Cf. Colony.] 1. The act or practice of cultivating, or of preparing the earth for seed and raising crops by tillage; as, the culture of the soil. [1913 Webster] 2. The act of, or any labor or means employed for, training, disciplining, or refining the moral and intellectual nature of man; as, the culture of the mind. [1913 Webster] If vain our toil We ought to blame the culture, not the soil. --Pepe. [1913 Webster] 3. The state of being cultivated; result of cultivation; physical improvement; enlightenment and discipline acquired by mental and moral training; civilization; refinement in manners and taste. [1913 Webster] What the Greeks expressed by their paidei`a, the Romans by their humanitas, we less happily try to express by the more artificial word culture. --J. C. Shairp. [1913 Webster] The list of all the items of the general life of a people represents that whole which we call its culture. --Tylor. [1913 Webster] 4. (Biol.) (a) The cultivation of bacteria or other organisms (such as fungi or eukaryotic cells from mulitcellular organisms) in artificial media or under artificial conditions. (b) The collection of organisms resulting from such a cultivation. Note: The growth of cells obtained from multicellular animals or plants in artificial media is called tissue culture. [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC] Note: The word is used adjectively with the above senses in many phrases, such as: culture medium, any one of the various mixtures of gelatin, meat extracts, etc., in which organisms cultivated; culture flask, culture oven, culture tube, gelatin culture, plate culture, etc. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 5. (Cartography) Those details of a map, collectively, which do not represent natural features of the area delineated, as names and the symbols for towns, roads, houses, bridges, meridians, and parallels. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] Culture fluid, Culture medium a fluid in which microscopic organisms are made to develop, either for purposes of study or as a means of modifying their virulence. If the fluid is gelled by, for example, the use of agar, it then is called, depending on the vessel in which the gelled medium is contained, a plate, a slant, or a stab. [1913 Webster +PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

culture medium n 1: (bacteriology) a nutrient substance (solid or liquid) that is used to cultivate micro-organisms [syn: culture medium, medium]