Microscopic means so small it needs a lens to be seen. Microscopic detail, microscopic organisms, microscopic cracks.
The threshold is roughly a tenth of a millimetre, which is about the limit of an unaided eye. Loosely it means extremely small — a microscopic chance. In examination it means done under a microscope: microscopic analysis. Note micro-, from the Greek for small, and -scope, from the Greek for looking.
1adjectivemicroscopicSo small it needs a lens to be seen.
“Water can look perfectly clean but still contain microscopic creatures.”
microscopic is a quality of smallness.
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
New Latin
microscopium
Italian
microscopio
English
microscope
English, today
microscopic
Built from
From microscope + -ic. microscope Borrowed from Italian microscopio. From New Latin microscopium and Italian microscopio, from Ancient Greek μικρός (“small”) + σκοπέω (“to look at”), equivalent to micro- + -scope.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA