magnifying glass

1. 1.

   light microscope consisting of a single convex lens that is used to produce an enlarged image

   “the magnifying glass was invented by Roger Bacon in 1250”

   Synonymshand glasssimple microscope

   Broaderlight microscope

   Narrowerloupe

Questions about magnifying glass

What does magnifying glass mean?

magnifying glass means "light microscope consisting of a single convex lens that is used to produce an enlarged image".

What is another word for magnifying glass?

Close synonyms include hand glass, simple microscope. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is magnifying glass a common word?

magnifying glass is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.