operator

American  

[op-uh-ray-ter] / ˈɒp əˌreɪ tər /

noun

• operators
  plural

1. a person who operates a machine, apparatus, or the like.

   a telegraph operator.

2. a person who operates a telephone switchboard, especially for a telephone company.

3. a person who manages a working or industrial establishment, enterprise, or system.

   the operators of a mine.

4. a person who trades in securities, especially speculatively or on a large scale.

5. a person who performs a surgical operation; a surgeon.

6. Mathematics.

   1. a symbol for expressing a mathematical operation.

   2. a function, especially one transforming a function, set, etc., into another.

      a differential operator.

7. Informal.

   1. a person who accomplishes goals or purposes by devious means; faker; fraud.

   2. a person who is adroit at overcoming, avoiding, or evading difficulties, regulations, or restrictions.

   3. a person who is extremely successful with or smoothly persuasive to potential sexual or romantic partners.

8. Genetics. a segment of DNA that interacts with a regulatory molecule, preventing transcription of the adjacent region.

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operator British  

/ ˈɒpəˌreɪtə /

noun

1. a person who operates a machine, instrument, etc, esp, a person who makes connections on a telephone switchboard or at an exchange

2. a person who owns or operates an industrial or commercial establishment

3. a speculator, esp one who operates on currency or stock markets

4. informal a person who manipulates affairs and other people

5. maths any symbol, term, letter, etc, used to indicate or express a specific operation or process, such as Δ (the differential operator)

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operator Scientific  

/ ŏp′ə-rā′tər /

1. Mathematics A function, especially one from a set to itself, such as differentiation of a differentiable function or rotation of a vector. In quantum mechanics, measurable quantities of a physical system, such as position and momentum, are related to unique operators applied to the wave equation describing the system.

2. A logical operator.

3. Genetics A segment of chromosomal DNA that regulates the activity of the structural genes of an operon by interacting with a specific repressor.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preoperator
  noun
• self-operator
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• operators
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of operator

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Late Latin, equivalent to operā(rī) “to work, effect” ( see operate) + Latin -tor noun suffix ( see -tor)

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Explanation

An operator is a person who runs a machine, equipment, or a vehicle. If you want to be a jackhammer operator some day, you might hope to work on a road crew of for a construction company. An operator operates, or controls, something. You could be a radio operator, a heavy machinery operator, or even a telephone operator — or you can be the operator, or manager, of a business. If you start your own dog walking company, you can call yourself an "owner-operator." The Latin root of both operator and operate is operari, "to work," and "to cause."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

operator operators

Our phone numbers are through Tello, a mobile virtual-network operator that rents tower space from T-Mobile.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

Truck stop operator Pilot opened charging sites for Tesla Semis in California and Georgia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

The company has struggled to increase attendance and revenue since its merger with rival theme-park operator Cedar Fair in July 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

After he lost his job because of the technology, he describes crossing "to the dark side" to work as a data operator.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

“Another operator took over my switchboard. She saw that I was—she saw that something was wrong and she took my headset, she took over the call.”

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

The awards, worth 381.8 million ringgit for CelcomDigi and 203 million ringgit for Maxis, give both operators direct ownership of spectrum previously accessed through partners, he notes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

The robots arrived accompanied by Ted Pinkerton, a founding engineer at Tau, who communicated with Bolo and Sergey’s human operators through a Bluetooth earpiece.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

“Peter is one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry,” Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

In a statement, Mobile UK, the trade association for the UK's mobile network operators, said mobile connectivity is "an essential service, not a luxury".

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

Because they had battery power, water injection had been a far easier task for the operators of unit 3 than it was for those of unit 1, but they were still improvising.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

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Related Words

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