converter

Or con·ver·tor

[kuhn-vur-ter]

noun

1. a person or thing that converts.

2. Electricity.,  a device that converts alternating current to direct current or vice versa.

3. Metallurgy.,  a chamber or vessel through which an oxidizing blast of air is forced, as in making steel by the Bessemer process.

4. Television.,  decoder.

5. Radio and Television.,  an auxiliary device that permits a receiver to pick up frequencies or channels for which it was not originally designed.

6. Physics.,  a reactor for converting one kind of fuel into another kind.

7. a person who is engaged in converting textile fabrics, especially cotton cloths, from the raw state into the finished product ready for the market by bleaching, dyeing, etc.

8. Also called converter lens. Photography.,  an additional lens attached to a lens in use on a camera to alter focal length, mounted in front of a lens to produce a wide-angle effect wide-angle converter, or wide-angle converter lens or between the lens and the camera body to produce a telephoto effect teleconverter, or extender.

converter

/ kənˈvɜːtə /

noun

1. a person or thing that converts

2. physics

   1. a device for converting alternating current to direct current or vice versa

   2. a device for converting a signal from one frequency to another or from analogue to digital forms

3. a vessel in which molten metal is refined, using a blast of air or oxygen See also Bessemer converter L-D converter

4. short for converter reactor

5. computing a device for converting one form of coded information to another, such as an analogue-to-digital converter

converter

1. An electrical device that changes the form of an electric signal or power source, as by converting alternating current to direct current, or an analog signal to a digital signal.

2. Compare rectifier transformer

3. An electronic device that changes the frequency of a radio or other electromagnetic signal.

Word History and Origins

Origin of converter¹

First recorded in 1525–35; convert ¹ + -er ¹

Example Sentences

A key element of this achievement was the use of "quantum frequency converters," devices that adjust small frequency mismatches between photons.

Read more on Science Daily

That will take £5bn of the investment plan up to 2030, some of it to improve the capacity of homes to run air heat converters and car charging through household meters.

Read more on BBC

Efforts are underway in England to develop a new converter device that could solve this problem, though.

Read more on BBC

These adjustments make just enough room on top of the engine for the pulse inverter and DC/DC converter.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Europium is crucial for television screens, cerium is used for polishing glass and refining oil, lanthanum makes a car's catalytic converters operate -- the list of uses in today's economy is virtually endless.

Read more on Barron's

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