synthesizer

[ sin-thuh-sahy-zer ]

noun
  1. a person or thing that synthesizes.

  2. any of various electronic, sometimes portable consoles or modules, usually computerized, for creating, modifying, and combining tones or reproducing the sounds of musical instruments by controlling voltage patterns, operated by means of keyboards, joysticks, sliders, or knobs.

Origin of synthesizer

1
First recorded in 1865–70; 1905–10 for def. 2; synthesize + -er1

Words Nearby synthesizer

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

How to use synthesizer in a sentence

  • Wikipedia describes her as a "singing synthesizer application with a female persona," created by Crypton Future Media.

  • These were then declaimed by a speech synthesizer, with the androidal American accent that has thereafter become his trademark.

  • When the last machine breaks and the final food synthesizer collapses the people will die.

    The K-Factor | Harry Harrison (AKA Henry Maxwell Dempsey)
  • He recognized the latest model lie-detector, a rather outdated narco-synthesizer, a Class B Psychocomputer.

    Evil Out of Onzar | Mark Ganes

British Dictionary definitions for synthesizer

synthesizer

/ (ˈsɪnθɪˌsaɪzə) /


noun
  1. an electrophonic instrument, usually operated by means of a keyboard and pedals, in which sounds are produced by voltage-controlled oscillators, filters, and amplifiers, with an envelope generator module that controls attack, decay, sustain, and release

  2. a person or thing that synthesizes

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