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resonator

American  
[rez-uh-ney-ter] / ˈrɛz əˌneɪ tər /

noun

  1. anything that resonates.

  2. an appliance for increasing sound by resonance.

  3. an instrument for detecting the presence of a particular frequency by means of resonance.

  4. Electronics.

    1. a hollow enclosure cavity resonator made of conducting material of such dimensions that electromagnetic radiation of a certain frequency will resonate.

    2. any circuit having this frequency characteristic.


resonator British  
/ ˈrɛzəˌneɪtə /

noun

  1. any body or system that displays resonance, esp a tuned electrical circuit or a conducting cavity in which microwaves are generated by a resonant current

"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

Etymology

Origin of resonator

First recorded in 1865–70; resonate + -or 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

"The Earth-ionosphere cavity acts as a natural resonator that amplifies electromagnetic waves right around the mass range we wanted to probe."

From Science Daily Sep. 6, 2026

"We've been chasing this kind of resonator for a long time, and when we saw the sharp resonances on this new device we knew right away that we'd finally cracked the code."

From Science Daily Feb. 24, 2026

The brittle, acoustically reflective shell combines with its curved, hollow shape to act as a Helmholtz resonator, rendering ambient background noise into the sound of the surf.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 16, 2026

From the discovery four years ago that a pair of gold flakes creates a self-assembled resonator, researchers have now developed a method to study various fundamental forces.

From Science Daily Oct. 23, 2025

“And now we’ve told you, I’ll take your resonator lodestone.”

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

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