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alternator

[awl-ter-ney-ter, al-]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR alternator ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Electricity.

a generator of alternating current.

Origin of alternator

First recorded in 1890–95; alternate + -or²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for alternator

Examples from the Web for alternator

Historical Examples of alternator

The other appears to have in it a resistance and a battery (or else an alternator).
Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son
John Mills
The roar of the alternator died down, first to a hum and then to a purr.
The Man Who Rocked the Earth
Arthur Train
I was up here—loading the condenser—when you cut me off from the alternator.
The Man Who Rocked the Earth
Arthur Train
The alternator began to buzz and spark, crackling viciously.
The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone
Richard Bonner
Each vertical row comprises the measuring instruments for an alternator.
The New York Subway
Anonymous

British Dictionary definitions for alternator

alternator

noun

an electrical machine that generates an alternating 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

Word Origin and History for alternator

n.

1878, agent noun in Latin form from alternate (v.).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

alternator in Science

alternator

[ôl′tər-nā′tər]

An electric generator that produces alternating current. The generator's coil is rotated (by a turbine, motor, or other power source), and its circular path causes it to cut cross a magnetic field (set up by strong magnets), first in one direction, then the other, with each cycle. The electric potential induced in the coil by this motion thus alternates between positive and negative once with each cycle, resulting in alternating current. See more at induction.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.