converter

or con·ver·tor

[ kuhn-vur-ter ]
See synonyms for converter on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person or thing that converts.

  2. Electricity. a device that converts alternating current to direct current or vice versa.: Compare inverter, synchronous converter.

  1. Metallurgy. a chamber or vessel through which an oxidizing blast of air is forced, as in making steel by the Bessemer process.

  2. Television. decoder (def. 5).

  3. Radio and Television. an auxiliary device that permits a receiver to pick up frequencies or channels for which it was not originally designed.

  4. Physics. a reactor for converting one kind of fuel into another kind.

  5. a person who is engaged in converting textile fabrics, especially cotton cloths, from the raw state into the finished product ready for the market by bleaching, dyeing, etc.

  6. Also called converter lens .Photography. an additional lens attached to a lens in use on a camera to alter focal length, mounted in front of a lens to produce a wide-angle effect (wide-angle converter, or wide-angle converter lens ) or between the lens and the camera body to produce a telephoto effect (teleconverter, or extender ).

Origin of converter

1
First recorded in 1525–35; convert1 + -er1

Words Nearby converter

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use converter in a sentence

  • With the converter in operation, the first step in the cycle was the evacuation of the ducts to a near-perfect vacuum.

    Greylorn | John Keith Laumer
  • He boosted me into the chamber of the converter and pointed out an opening near the top, about twelve by twenty-four inches.

    Greylorn | John Keith Laumer
  • The roaring flames, rushing from the mouth of the converter, changes its violet color to orange and finally to pure white.

    The Harris-Ingram Experiment | Charles E. Bolton
  • To load or charge the converter it is tilted over somewhat to one side so that molten pig iron can be poured into it.

  • During the whole time that the metal is in the converter, from twenty to thirty minutes, no fuel is used to keep it hot.

British Dictionary definitions for converter

converter

convertor

/ (kənˈvɜːtə) /


noun
  1. a person or thing that converts

  2. physics

    • a device for converting alternating current to direct current or vice versa

    • a device for converting a signal from one frequency to another or from analogue to digital forms

  1. a vessel in which molten metal is refined, using a blast of air or oxygen: See also Bessemer converter, L-D converter

  2. computing a device for converting one form of coded information to another, such as an analogue-to-digital converter

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for converter

converter

[ kən-vûrtər ]


  1. An electrical device that changes the form of an electric signal or power source, as by converting alternating current to direct current, or an analog signal to a digital signal. Compare rectifier transformer.

  2. An electronic device that changes the frequency of a radio or other electromagnetic signal.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.