controller
Americannoun
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controllers
plural
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an employee, often an officer, of a business firm who checks expenditures, finances, etc.; comptroller.
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a person who regulates, directs, or restrains.
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British Aeronautics. a dispatcher.
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a regulating mechanism; governor.
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Also called control unit, processor. Computers. the key component of a device, as a terminal, printer, or external storage unit, that contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and execute instructions fed into the device.
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Digital Technology. a remote piece of hardware used to direct or control an electronic device.
a video game controller.
noun
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a person who directs, regulates, or restrains
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Also called: comptroller. a business executive or government officer who is responsible for financial planning, control, etc
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the equipment concerned with controlling the operation of an electrical device
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of controller
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English countrollour, from Anglo-French countrero(u)llour, Middle French contrerolleur, equivalent to contrerolle “duplicate roll” + -eur, -our, from Latin -ōr- or -ātōr- noun suffixes; see control, -or 2, -ator
Explanation
The device that's used to operate a tool or machine is a controller. When you play video games, you move your character around on screen using a joystick or controller. A controller is any object or person that controls something. An air traffic controller is a person who usually works in a control tower at an airport and is in charge of monitoring and directing pilots to make sure planes take off and land safely. Another kind of human controller, also known as a comptroller, is the person in charge of accounting and finances at a business or organization. These controllers have the important job of being in control of the money.
Vocabulary lists containing controller
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.
See Examples For:
Radio 2 controller Helen Thomas described Scanlon as "incredibly warm and quick witted and proved to be extremely popular with the Radio 2 audience this summer".
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
As drivers ratchet up to Sport and Race modes on the manettino controller, the active exhaust valves allow more volume and breathy resonance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I have lost thrust in my engine,” the pilot of the single-seat Mk.58 Hawker Hunter fighter jet communicated to an air traffic controller, according to an audio broadcast from @liveatc.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
She, much like the person behind the proverbial controller, is dropped into a world quickly becoming overrun by a viral plague with no idea what to do.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
She stomps her foot and thrusts out her hand for the game controller.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
Instead, their experience will remain available to astronauts, engineers, flight controllers, and others working on the next stages of NASA's human spaceflight program.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
“This is dangerous for European security,” said Jaworska-Maćkowiak, adding that she was working to secure loans to cover next year’s budget, including money needed to train new controllers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
Marvell refers to its custom chips as XPUs, and to the components that support them in data centers — such as networking and storage controllers — as XPU attach.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
He used a largely unknown cast and shot with an almost documentary immediacy, cutting between the plane and air-traffic controllers trying to make sense of what was happening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The room bustled with activity as the dozens of controllers each made final preparations for launch.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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.
