magnetic tape

American  

noun

1. a ribbon of material, usually with a plastic base, coated on one side single tape or both sides double tape with a substance containing iron oxide, to make it sensitive to impulses from an electromagnet: used to record sound, images, data, etc.

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magnetic tape British  

noun

1. Sometimes (informal) shortened to: mag tape.  a long narrow plastic or metal strip coated or impregnated with a ferromagnetic material such as iron oxide, used to record sound or video signals or to store information in computers

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magnetic tape Scientific  

1. A plastic tape coated with iron oxide for use in magnetic recording.

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magnetic tape Cultural  

1. A device for storing information, in which signals are recorded by lining up small bits of magnetic materials in the coating on the tape. Ordinary tape recorders use magnetic tape.

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Etymology

Origin of magnetic tape

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Inside the cassette is a kilometre of magnetic tape, capable of storing 18 terabytes of data.

From BBC

At that time, he had to cut up strips of magnetic tape and then tape them back together.

From New York Times

Scientists communicated with these room-size machines by feeding mathematical and textual instructions into vacuum tubes via typewriters, magnetic tape and punched cards.

From New York Times

These particular cylinders were previously available to the library in the 1980s, when they were transferred to magnetic tape and released as part of a six-volume LP set compiling the Mapleson recordings.

From New York Times

It hasn’t helped that the agency has such outdated information technology systems that it sometimes uses a 1960s-era computer language for data processing and stores information on magnetic tapes in warehouses.

From Los Angeles Times