-tron
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a combining form extracted from electron, used with nouns or combining forms, principally in the names of electron tubes (ignitron; klystron; magnetron) and of devices for accelerating subatomic particles (cosmotron; cyclotron); also, more generally, in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments (biotron).
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Origin of -tron
By initial shortening of electron, with perhaps accidental allusion to the Greek instrumental suffix -tron, as in árotron “plough”
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for -tron
British Dictionary definitions for -tron (1 of 2)
tron
/ (trɒn) /
noun
a public weighing machine
the place where a tron is set up; marketplace
Word Origin for tron
C15: from Old French trone, from Latin trutina, from Greek trutanē balance, set of scales
British Dictionary definitions for -tron (2 of 2)
-tron
suffix forming nouns
indicating a vacuum tubemagnetron
indicating an instrument for accelerating atomic or subatomic particlessynchrotron
Word Origin for -tron
from Greek, suffix indicating instrument
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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