microcosm
UK/ˈmaɪ.kɹə(ʊ)ˌkɒz.əm//ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌkɑz.əm/
microcosm noun: human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.
Noun
microcosm (plural microcosms)
- Human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.
- The Christian humanists were emphatic in their demand that a man who wishes to understand himself must realize that he is a little world that reflects on a smaller scale the larger world of the universe. […] On the other hand, the whole idea of man as a microcosm was questioned by those who were...1972, Rolf Soellner, Shakespeare's Patterns of Self-Knowledge, Chapter 3: Microcosm and Macrocosm: Framing The Picture of Man, page 43
- The human body; a person.
- If you see this in the Map of my Microcosme, followes it that I am knowne well enough too?c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- A smaller system which is seen as representative of a larger one.
- Near-synonyms: epitome, paradigm, model
- With a few actors at his disposition he created a microcosm of life.1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “I. Introduction”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 19
- A small natural ecosystem; an artificial ecosystem set up as an experimental model.
- The method is relatively labour intensive (24-30 microcosms are run) and more difficult to interpret when compared with other microcosm methods (Shannon et al. 1986; Cairns & Cherry 1993).2009, Jerry C. Smrchek, Maurice G. Zeeman, Chapter 3: Assessing Risks to Ecological Systems from Chemicals, Peter P. Calow (editor), Handbook of Environmental Risk Assessment and Management, page 53
microcosm meaning in Tamil and Bengali
microcosm in Tamil
- நுண்ணுயிர், அண்டத்தின் நுண்மாதிரி படிவ பிண்டம்
microcosm in Bengali
- মানুষের দেহ, এক ব্যক্তি, একটি ছোট প্রাকৃতিক বাস্তুতন্ত্র
Examples of microcosm in a sentence
- That short journey to Brighton was like a microcosm of the railway universe, embracing as it did a tunnel, a viaduct, two junctions, and two termini!1953 April, Henry Maxwell, “Abandoned Railway Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 271:
- They experienced a microcosm of this within the opening 45 minutes at the Stadium of Light.2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:
- It should come as no surprise to see promotional material and bulletin boards in the department’s languages, though English is also present in the signage of this microcosm of the institution.2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual...
- The wider North West and Central Region is itself a microcosm of the industry's complexity.2025 October 1, Richard Wilcock, “There is more to be proud of in the railway than we sometimes allow ourselves to see”, in RAIL, number...
Synonyms of microcosm
Antonyms
Forms of microcosm
| plural | microcosms |
|---|
Origin of microcosm
From French microcosme, from Latin microcosmus, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) + κόσμος (kósmos, “universe, order”); micro- + -cosm.
Words formed from microcosm
Questions about microcosm
- What does microcosm mean?
- Microcosm means human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.
- What is microcosm in Tamil?
- Microcosm in Tamil is நுண்ணுயிர், அண்டத்தின் நுண்மாதிரி படிவ பிண்டம். See Microcosm meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use microcosm in a sentence?
- That short journey to Brighton was like a microcosm of the railway universe, embracing as it did a tunnel, a viaduct, two junctions, and two termini!
- What part of speech is microcosm?
- Microcosm is a noun.
- How do you pronounce microcosm?
- Microcosm is pronounced /ˈmaɪ.kɹə(ʊ)ˌkɒz.əm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of microcosm?
- The plural of microcosm is microcosms.
Words near microcosm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: microcosm (page history and authors); microcosm (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); microcosm (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-microcosm.ogg, en-au-microcosm.ogg.
Cite this entry: “microcosm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/microcosm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.