spectrometer
nounUK /spɛkˈtɹɒm.ɪ.tə/ · CA, US /spɛkˈtɹɑm.ɪ.təɹ/
Etymology From spectro- + -meter.
1
An optical instrument for measuring the absorption of light by chemical substances; typically it will plot a graph of absorption versus wavelength or frequency, and the patterns produced are used to identify the substances present, and their internal structure.
Analytical chemistry
- Derived terms
- fluorospectrometer, hyperspectrometer, mass spectrometer, microspectrometer, minispectrometer, photospectrometer, radiospectrometer, X-ray spectrometer
- Related terms
- spectrometric, spectrometry