telescope - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

A telescope is an instrument that is used to view distant objects. If you want to look at the planets, you can use a telescope. The higher the magnification on the telescope, the better your view will be.

Galileo is often credited with the invention of the telescope, but this is incorrect. Although he did not invent it, he did improve it — a lot. He didn't name the telescope either. That honor went to Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani, who gave the instrument its name when Galileo presented the instrument at the Accademia dei Lincei, a science society in Italy, in 1611. Telescope is from the Greek roots tele (meaning "far") and skopos (meaning "seeing"); so the word literally describes what the instrument does.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: telescope

1	n	a magnifier of images of distant objects
2	v	crush together or collapse

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: telescope

1

n a magnifier of images of distant objects

Synonyms:: scope

Types:: show 7 types...; hide 7 types...; astronomical telescope
any telescope designed to collect and record electromagnetic radiation from cosmic sources; collimator
a small telescope attached to a large telescope to use in setting the line of the larger one; equatorial
a telescope whose mounting has only two axes of motion, one parallel to the Earth's axis and the other one at right angles to it; solar telescope
a telescope designed to make observations of the sun; transit instrument
a telescope mounted on an axis running east and west and used to time the transit of a celestial body across the meridian; optical telescope
an astronomical telescope designed to collect and record light from cosmic sources; radio reflector, radio telescope
astronomical telescope that picks up electromagnetic radiations in the radio-frequency range from extraterrestrial sources

Type of:: magnifier
a scientific instrument that magnifies an image

2

v crush together or collapse

“In the accident, the cars telescoped”

“my hiking sticks telescope and can be put into the backpack”

Type of:: crush, mash, squash, squeeze, squelch
to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition

v make smaller or shorter

“the novel was telescoped into a short play”

Type of:: concentrate, condense, digest
make more concise