WordGarden.iomicrotitre
Pronunciation
UK
US
Meanings
Noun
a laboratory titre measured with very small reagent volumes, often in a multiwell plate assay
Beyond the definition
Imagine a scientist needing to run many small tests at once, perhaps checking how different substances react. They do not need a separate large container for each one. A microtitre plate is a small flat tray with a grid of tiny wells, each one holding a very small amount of liquid so the tests can be done quickly and neatly. Think of it as a little lab block made for liquids. These plates are common in biology, immunology, and drug research.
Microtitre plates come in different sizes. A 96-well plate is common, but there are also 384-well and 1536-well versions. Scientists often use machines to add liquids to the wells and read the results automatically. If you have seen how samples are processed in a modern lab, there is a good chance plates like these were part of the process.
A microtitre plate, also spelled "microtiter plate," is a laboratory tool used for high-throughput assays, meaning experiments that need to be run on many samples at once. It is usually a flat plastic tray containing many small wells, often arranged in an grid for 96 wells, though denser versions such as 384-well and 1536-well plates are also common. Each well acts like a miniature test tube and can hold very small volumes, often from tens to several hundred microlitres.
The term "microtitre" is closely tied to measuring and handling very small amounts of liquid. Over time, the name became strongly associated with the plate itself. These plates are important in fields such as biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, and drug discovery.
They are used for a wide range of applications: ELISA tests to detect antibodies or other molecules, cell culture, drug screening, and sample preparation for many kinds of biological analysis. Specialized readers can measure absorbance, fluorescence, luminescence, or other signals in each well, allowing scientists to analyze many results quickly.
Think about a diagnostic test for a disease: one common step is to place many samples into a microtitre plate and check them for specific markers. Plates like these have changed laboratory work by making experiments faster, more efficient, and easier to automate. So, while you may never notice them outside a lab, they play a quiet but important part in modern research and healthcare testing.
Examples
- 1
Lab equipment
The samples were loaded into a microtitre plate.
- Phrasemicrotitre plate
a flat laboratory plate with many very small wells
- 2
Blood testing
We used a 96-well microtitre plate to test all the blood samples at once.
- 3
Plate reading
After incubation, a scanner measured the colour in each microtitre well.
See also
Similar
- microtiter
Contrast
- conventional titration
Used with (collocations)
- microtitre plate
- microtitre assay
- 96-well microtitre plate
- microtitre plate reader
Word family
- microtitration
- titre
Explore
- titration
- microplate assay
Forms and spellings
1 form open this card.
Main spelling
- microtitre