Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of length equal to one thousandth (10−3) of a millimeter or one millionth (10−6) of a meter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The millionth part of a meter, or of an English inch.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physics) A measure of length; the thousandth part of one millimeter; the millionth part of a meter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics A unit of length; the thousandth part of one millimeter; the millionth part of a meter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a metric unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek mīkron, neuter of mīkros, small.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

New Latin, from Ancient Greek μικρόν, neuter of μικρός ("small").

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Examples

  • Spanish; another to express the more open vowels; another the less open vowels; for which the word micron is here used, and for which the word mega is here used.

    Note XV 1803

  • Motility of bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli with a body size of 1 ~ 2 micron, is driven by rapid rotation of a helical propeller by such a tiny little motor at its base.

    A self-assembling nanomachine with fine switching capability 2005

  • Ch Spanish; another to express the more open vowels; another the less open vowels; for which the word micron is here used, and for which the word mega is here used.

    The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society A Poem, with Philosophical Notes Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • Plastic shopping bags are currently about 15 microns thick (a micron is a thousandth of a millimetre).

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2002

  • Plastic shopping bags are currently about 15 microns thick (a micron is a thousandth of a millimetre).

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2002

  • Plastic shopping bags are currently about 15 microns thick (a micron is a thousandth of a millimetre).

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2002

  • Then the following characters only might be necessary to express them all; P alone, or with antesonance B; with narisonance M; with sibilance W German; with sonisibilance W; with vocality, termed micron

    The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society A Poem, with Philosophical Notes Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • "Aerosols measure only about a tenth of a micron, which is really, really tiny compared to cloud droplets, which are often roughly 10 microns across," says Marshak.

    New Scientist - Earth 2009

  • The corrosion is often impossible to see with the naked eye because it's so small -- as small as a micron, which is a millionth of a meter, Bond said.

    Officer.com: Top News Stories 2009

  • LIEBERMAN: So is the presumption now that the terrorists who were sending the anthrax through the mail were operating at such a level of sophistication that they had not only refined the anthrax to the -- one micron, which is not visible to the eye, but that they had put openings in the envelopes or package coverings that were slightly larger than the one micron, but large enough when handled to let some of the anthrax spores out?

    CNN Transcript Oct 30, 2001 2001

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