Word.ws English Dictionary

zoopraxiscope

zoopraxiscope noun: an instrument developed by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1870's, similar to the phenakistoscope. The instrument involves a disc that includes serial pictures being rotated in front of a light source, projecting them upon a screen, to exhibit the natural movements of animals and the like.

zoopraxiscope: an instrument developed by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1870's, similar to the phenakistoscope. The...
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Noun

zoopraxiscope (plural zoopraxiscopes)

  1. (historical) An instrument developed by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1870's, similar to the phenakistoscope. The instrument involves a disc that includes serial pictures being rotated in front of a light source, projecting them upon a screen, to exhibit the natural movements of animals and the like.
    • A few years before, he bought his youngest girl a zoopraxiscope for her birthday, though he alone kept playing with it, after she grew bored. Now those squadrons of flapping geese and parades of bucking broncos that come alive when the glass drum spins animate his brain.2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 12
    Synonyms:
    zoogyroscope

Synonyms of zoopraxiscope

Forms of zoopraxiscope

pluralzoopraxiscopes
alternative formzoöpraxiscope
alternative formzoopraxinoscope

Origin of zoopraxiscope

From zoo + praxis + scope.

Questions about zoopraxiscope

What does zoopraxiscope mean?
Zoopraxiscope means an instrument developed by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1870's, similar to the phenakistoscope. The instrument involves a disc that includes serial pictures being rotated in front of a light source, projecting them upon a screen, to exhibit the natural movements of animals and the like.
What part of speech is zoopraxiscope?
Zoopraxiscope is a noun.
What is the plural of zoopraxiscope?
The plural of zoopraxiscope is zoopraxiscopes.

Words near zoopraxiscope in the dictionary

  1. zooplasty
  2. zoopotentiation
  3. zoopragmatics
  4. zoopraxinoscope
  5. zoopraxinoscopes
  6. zoopraxiscope
  7. zoopraxiscopes
  8. zoopraxography
  9. zooprophylactic
  10. zooprophylaxis
  11. zoopsia

Source and license

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