Meaning & use
graduated cylinder
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A tall, narrow glass or plastic tube with marked lines up its side, used in laboratories to measure the volume of a liquid.
Grammar: Countable: a graduated cylinder, two graduated cylinders.
Patterns
- measure something in a graduated cylinder
- pour something into a graduated cylinder
She poured 50 milliliters of water into the graduated cylinder.
Read the level of the liquid at the bottom of the curve in the graduated cylinder.
The students compared a beaker with a graduated cylinder to see which was more precise.
Word forms
| plural | graduated cylinders |
|---|
Common combinations
- fill a graduated cylinder
- Fill a graduated cylinder to the 20 mL line.
- read a graduated cylinder
- Read a graduated cylinder at eye level for accuracy.
- pour into a graduated cylinder
- Pour the solution into a graduated cylinder slowly.
- a 100 mL graduated cylinder
- We used a 100 mL graduated cylinder for the experiment.
- measure in a graduated cylinder
- Measure the volume of the rock by water displacement in a graduated cylinder.
Synonyms and how they differ
- measuring cylinder
- This is the usual British name for the same tool, so it is simply a regional variant.
- beaker
- A beaker is wider with rough markings and is less precise, so it suits holding and mixing rather than exact measuring.
- volumetric flask
- This flask is built to hold one exact volume, while a graduated cylinder can measure many different volumes.
Word family
- graduate verb
- to mark a scale with measured divisions
- graduation noun
- a mark on a scale used for measuring
- cylinder noun
- a tube-shaped object
- cylindrical adjective
- shaped like a cylinder
Commonly confused: graduated cylinder or beaker?
graduated cylinder vs beaker
A beaker is a wide cup-like container with approximate markings. A graduated cylinder is taller and thinner and gives more accurate readings.
Practice
To measure 37 mL of a liquid as accurately as possible, a student should use a ___.
Choose one answer.
A graduated cylinder has fine marks for precise volumes. A beaker is only roughly marked, and the other items are not measuring tools.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “graduated cylinder”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.