- a thing, a place or a group that has all the features and qualities of something much larger
- The family is a microcosm of society.
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French microcosme or medieval Latin microcosmus, from Greek mikros kosmos ‘little world’.Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Idioms
See microcosm in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryin microcosm
- on a small scale
- The developments in this town represent in microcosm what is happening in the country as a whole.
Check pronunciation:
microcosm