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

For example, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a specialized form of IVF in which time-lapse images of sperm moving in a petri dish help clinicians select those believed to be most likely to fertilize an egg. — Edna Bonhomme, Scientific American, 6 July 2026

So far, much of the research on PDRN as a skin-care ingredient has taken place in petri dishes, which don't account for the many complexities of human skin cells. — Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 4 July 2026

Remove fibroblasts from a petri dish, and skin stem cells struggle to grow. — Peter Jurich, Hartford Courant, 22 June 2026

In one study, researchers placed petri dishes beneath restroom air dryers and found as many as 60 bacterial colonies after just 30 seconds of exposure. — Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 12 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Julius R. Petri †1921 German bacteriologist

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for petri dish

• cuttlefish
• jellyfish
• sablefish
• bluefish
• catfish
• codfish
• crawfish
• dogfish
• finfish
• flatfish
• goldfish
• groundfish

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)