*māk-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "long, thin." It forms all or part of: emaciate; macro; macro-; macrobiotic; macron; meager; paramecium. It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek makros "long, large," mēkos "length;" Latin macer "lean, thin;" Old Norse magr, Old English mæger "lean, thin."

also macro-economic, "pertaining to the economy as a whole," 1938, from macro- + economic.

also macro-instruction, in computing, "a group of programming instructions compressed into a simpler form and appearing as a single instruction," 1959, from macro- + instruction.

1886, "molecule consisting of several molecules," a sense now obsolete, from macro- + molecule. Apparently coined in "On Macro-molecules, with the Determinations of the Form of Some of Them," by Anglo-Irish physicist G. Johnstone Stoney (1826–1911). Originally of crystals. Meaning "molecule composed of many atoms" is by 1935, from German makromolekul (1922). Related: Macromolecular (by 1931).

1974, introduced with the 15th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for the part of the encyclopedia in which information was presented in full essays, from macro- + ending from encyclopaedia.

"type of large white blood cell with the power to devour foreign debris in the body or other cells or organisms," 1890, from macro- "large" + -phage "eater."

"photography of objects at or larger than actual size without the use of a magnifying lens," 1863, from macro- + photography.

"visible to the naked eye," 1841, from macro- + ending from microscopic. Related: Macroscopical; macroscopically.

in botany, "a spore of large size compared with others," 1859, from macro- "large" + spore (n.).