telescope.

1. An instrument that gathers electromagnetic radiation to examine distant objects.

2. To lengthen or shorten through sections sliding inside one another.

3. To shorten an account or combine events into a compressed presentation.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• radio telescope
• optical telescope

On the page

The telescope resolved a narrow ring around the planet.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular telescope; plural telescopes. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: telescopes.