detector
Americannoun
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a person or thing that detects.
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a device for detecting smoke, fire, or some other hazardous condition.
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a device for detecting the presence of metal, contraband, or other items that might be hidden or concealed.
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Telecommunications.
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a device for detecting electric oscillations or waves.
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a device, as a crystal detector or a vacuum tube, that rectifies the alternating current in a radio receiver.
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noun
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a person or thing that detects
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any mechanical sensing device
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electronics a device used in the detection of radio signals
Etymology
Origin of detector
1535–45; < Late Latin dētēctor revealer, equivalent to Latin dēteg ( ere ) to uncover, reveal ( see detect) + -tor -tor
Explanation
A detector is a machine that responds to particular substances in a consistent way. Everyone who flies on an airplane must pass through a metal detector, which beeps when it senses metal. A "lie detector" works by measuring pulse and eye movements as a person responds to a series of questions. A radioactivity detector looks for high levels of radioactivity in nuclear power plants. Since the invention of detectors, the idea of more fantastical detectors has filled the human imagination. A love detector: why not?
Vocabulary lists containing detector
Seedfolks
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"Dogs at Work"
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The Mark of Athena
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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.
Because the process occurs entirely within the plane of the material, it also avoids several efficiency limitations that have constrained earlier detector designs.
From Science Daily • May 31, 2026
Researchers have now developed a compact new detector that combines quantum physics with a specially engineered metasurface to significantly improve the way terahertz radiation is captured and converted into electrical signals.
From Science Daily • May 31, 2026
Filip lives in Bergeijk in the south of the Netherlands, just a few miles from the Belgian border and has been a metal detector enthusiast for more than 35 years.
From BBC • May 25, 2026
Even with its partial configuration, the detector captured a signal unlike anything scientists had seen before.
From Science Daily • May 24, 2026
These particles are virtual particles like the particles that carry the gravitational force of the sun: unlike real particles, they cannot be observed directly with a particle detector.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
