scotoscope

scotoscope noun: any instrument for viewing objects in the dark or in a faint light.

Noun

scotoscope (plural scotoscopes)

Any instrument for viewing objects in the dark or in a faint light.
- August 13th 1664, Samuel Pepys, Diary (London: Marshall Cavendish, 1988), 133.
  “Comes Mr. Reeve, with a microscope and scotoscope. […] The other [the scotoscope] he gives me, and is of value; and a curious curiosity it is to discover objects in a dark room with.”
- At present the scotoscope's field of view and viewing-range requirements are in conflict, and improvement of one results in a decreased capability in the other.1967, Harold V. Soule, Electro-optical Photography at Low Illumination Levels, page 363

A scotoscope (night vision device) was the most versatile viewer examined and provided maximum viewing distance for all markers.1979, Proceedings: Second International Conference on Wildlife, page 206:
However, where the angular field can be below 40°, a scotoscope with a refractive objective becomes a very useful device even with this small cathode diameter.1990, Illes P. Csorba, Selected Papers on Image Tubes, page 376:

plural	scotoscopes

From scoto- + -scope.

What does scotoscope mean?: Scotoscope means any instrument for viewing objects in the dark or in a faint light.
How do you use scotoscope in a sentence?: A scotoscope (night vision device) was the most versatile viewer examined and provided maximum viewing distance for all markers.
What part of speech is scotoscope?: Scotoscope is a noun.
What is the plural of scotoscope?: The plural of scotoscope is scotoscopes.

Adapted from Wiktionary: scotoscope (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “scotoscope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scotoscope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.