processor

American  

[pros-es-er, proh-ses-] / ˈprɒs ɛs ər, ˈproʊ sɛs- /

Sometimes processer

noun

• processors
  plural

1. a person or thing that processes.

2. Computers.

   1. a controller, the key component of a computing device that contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and execute electrical signals fed into the device.

   2. a computer.

3. food processor.

---

processor British  

/ ˈprəʊsɛsə /

noun

1. computing another name for central processing unit

2. a person or thing that carries out a process

---

processor Scientific  

/ prŏs′ĕs′ər,prō′sĕs′- /

1. A part of a computer, such as the central processing unit, that performs calculations or other manipulations of data.

2. A program that translates another program into a form acceptable by the computer being used.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• processors
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of processor

First recorded in 1905–10; process + -or ²

---

Explanation

A processor is a person or machine that goes through certain procedures to achieve a particular result. A milk processor milks cows, stores the milk, pasteurizes it, and bottles it before you buy it a store. There are many different kinds of processors, but what they all have in common is going through a process, a series of specific steps, to accomplish something. The food processor in your kitchen quickly dices pounds of onions, a task that would take considerable work to complete by hand. A word processor does the same for writing, allowing you to easily edit text. Computer processors control and move vast amounts of data. The Latin root means "advance or progress."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

processor processors

They tell clients in a note that Advanced Bionics’ new implant platform is another incremental headwind for the Australian hearing-tech provider, pointing out that processor launches have historically driven share gains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

Massive volumes of video could initially pass through the parallel optical processor.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

They also challenged the processor with videos produced using Google's VEO-3 model.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

U.S. export controls forced Nvidia to take a $4.5 billion charge last year related to its China-focused H20 processor.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

Today he’d removed it from the control panel and shut down Festus the figurehead for maintenance—something about rewiring his processor for a motor-control upgrade with the sphere, whatever the heck that meant.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

But wait — he has no soul, just wires, processors, fluid and whatnot, plus a set of AI personas guiding his interactions with the human world.

From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026

Its suppliers receive orders for processors, networking, power systems and cooling.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026

Taiwan is home to hardware production giants TSMC, which turns Nvidia's cutting-edge designs into silicon components, and Foxconn, which assembles the processors to make data centre servers.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

Counterintuitively, this means that organizations like Cornerstone can repurpose older silicon manufacturing equipment used for earlier generations of processors.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

But even the best software isn’t smart enough to assign trees reliably, so writers cannot offload the task of minding the tree onto their word processors.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---