hydrophone

[hahy-druh-fohn]

noun

a device for locating sources of sound under water, as for detecting submarines by the noise of their engines.

an instrument employing the principles of the microphone, used to detect the flow of water through a pipe.

Medicine/Medical. an instrument used in auscultation, whereby sounds are intensified through a column of water.

Origin of hydrophone

First recorded in 1855–60; hydro-¹ + -phone

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

Examples from the Web for hydrophone

Historical Examples of hydrophone

The Adriatic Sea was an ideal place for the use of the hydrophone.
Inventions of the Great War
A. Russell (Alexander Russell) Bond
Then came the store rooms and wireless and hydrophone rooms.
The Thick of the Fray at Zeebrugge
Percy F. Westerman
Many U-boats were chased to their doom by the aid of the American hydrophone.
Inventions of the Great War
A. Russell (Alexander Russell) Bond
The development of the hydrophone for anti-submarine work, both from ships and from shore stations.
The Crisis of the Naval War
John Rushworth Jellicoe
The exasperated "C 6" pursued by hydrophone for another quarter of an hour, but the sound of the enemy's motors was then lost.
The Story of Our Submarines
John Graham Bower

British Dictionary definitions for hydrophone

hydrophone

noun

an electroacoustic transducer that converts sound or ultrasonic waves travelling through water into electrical oscillations

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

hydrophone in Science

hydrophone

[hī′drə-fōn′]

A device used to detect or monitor sound under water. Hydrophones are often installed or towed in arrays that can be used to pinpoint a sound source or provide sea-floor imaging as part of a sonar system.