scanner

[skan-er]

noun

1. a person or thing that scans.

2. Also called optical reader. Also called optical scanner. Computers.,  a device that scans printed, handwritten, barcode, or other visual data and encodes it into digital format.

3. Photography.,  any device for exposing an image on film, a sensitized plate, etc., by tracing light along a series of many closely spaced parallel lines.

4. (in aerial photography) a device for estimating the ratio of aircraft speed to aircraft altitude.

5. a photoelectric device for scanning a picture to determine automatically the density of the hue or value in each area for transmission by wire or radio or for preparation of color process printing plates.

6. a computer-aided electronic system using photoelectric cells to separate copy, as color illustrations, into its primary colors, correct color copy, and produce a set of color separations ready for proofing or printing.

7. Radio.,  a radio receiver, used especially by police, firefighters, and the press, that continuously tunes to preselected frequencies, broadcasting any signal that it detects.

8. Medicine/Medical, Biology.,  a device for examining a body, organ, tissue, or other biologically active material.

scanner

/ ˈskænə /

noun

1. a person or thing that scans

2. a device, usually electronic, used to measure or sample the distribution of some quantity or condition in a particular system, region, or area

3. an aerial or similar device designed to transmit or receive signals, esp radar signals, inside a given solid angle of space, thus allowing a particular region to be scanned

4. any of various devices used in medical diagnosis to obtain an image of an internal organ or part See CAT scanner nuclear magnetic resonance scanner ultrasound scanner

5. informal,  a television outside broadcast vehicle

6. short for optical scanner

7. printing an electronic device which scans printed material and converts it to digital form

Word History and Origins

Origin of scanner¹

First recorded in 1550–60; scan + -er ¹

Example Sentences

North opens the door to her Lego room via a fingerprint scanner.

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A laptop on the center console dings like a supermarket scanner every time license-plate readers attached to the truck capture another car’s tag—and the computer squawks when it spots a possible repo candidate.

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He had us step on a body composition scanner, which looked like a slender scale.

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Last year, an archivist located the negative and brought it to one of Bettmann’s labs, where she placed it on a flatbed scanner.

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The researchers are exploring how the method could be adapted for wider clinical use, including on more commonly available 3T MRI scanners.

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