projector

American  

[pruh-jek-ter] / prəˈdʒɛk tər /

noun

• projectors
  plural

1. an apparatus for throwing an image on a screen, as a motion-picture projector or magic lantern.

2. a device for projecting a beam of light.

3. a person who forms projects or plans.

4. Archaic. a person who devises underhanded or unsound plans; schemer.

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projector British  

/ prəˈdʒɛktə /

noun

1. Full name: slide projector.  an optical instrument that projects an enlarged image of individual slides onto a screen or wall

2. Full name: film projector.   cine projector.  an optical instrument in which a strip of film is wound past a lens at a fixed speed so that the frames can be viewed as a continuously moving sequence on a screen or wall

3. a device for projecting a light beam

4. a person who devises projects

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• projectors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of projector

First recorded in 1590–1600; project + -or ²

Explanation

A projector is a machine you use for showing movies or images on a screen. In the days before digital cameras, tourists would frequently take pictures with slide film that they could show their friends later with a projector. Today, most theaters use digital equipment to show movies, although a few are still filmed on actual film and require an old-fashioned projector. While these days a teacher might use a large television and a laptop to show the class an educational film, they would once have had to use a projector and a film strip. Projector comes from the verb project, "cast an image," from Latin roots pro-, "forward," and iacere, "to throw."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

projector projectors

The inspiration for the series began with the fact that the Museum’s holdings included an actual VistaVision projector built in the early 1990s for dailies screenings but which hadn’t been used for decades.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

The projector returned to the museum a few months ago.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

Other titles to be shown using the VistaVision projector include John Sturges’ “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” Robert Lewis’ musical “Anything Goes” and Michael Curtiz’s comedy “We’re No Angels.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

The astronomy group suggests creating a pinhole projector, which can be done by making a hole in a piece of card.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

It was a slide projector I’d made by mounting a lightbulb on a piece of wood and positioning wooden plates with lenses from magnifying glasses in front of it.

From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz

Those unable to find glasses used other methods, including colanders as pinhole projectors to cast multiple images of the eclipse.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

While there are more than 50 Imax screens in the UK, only three are showing it using 70mm film projectors - the BFI and Science Museum in London, and Printworks in Manchester.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

“The problem is they haven’t made new Imax film projectors in about 50 years,” Gelfond told Variety on Wednesday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

It’s an admirable acknowledgement of those behind the scenes, slotting film reels into the Dryden’s 75-year-old projectors, summoning shimmering worlds before our eyes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

He searched between all of his holographic projectors mounted in the catwalks above the stage, and under auditorium seats, and in the bandstand.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles