recorder

American  

[ri-kawr-der] / rɪˈkɔr dər /

noun

1. a person who records, especially as an official duty.

2. English Law.

   1. a judge in a city or borough court.

   2. (formerly) the legal adviser of a city or borough, with responsibility for keeping a record of legal actions and local customs.

3. a recording or registering apparatus or device.

4. a device for recording sound, images, or data by electrical, magnetic, or optical means.

5. an end-blown flute having a fipple mouthpiece, eight finger holes, and a soft, mellow tone.

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recorder British  

/ rɪˈkɔːdə /

noun

1. a person who records, such as an official or historian

2. something that records, esp an apparatus that provides a permanent record of experiments, etc

3. short for tape recorder

4. music a wind instrument of the flute family, blown through a fipple in the mouth end, having a reedlike quality of tone. There are four usual sizes: bass, tenor, treble, and descant

5. (in England) a barrister or solicitor of at least ten years' standing appointed to sit as a part-time judge in the crown court

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recorder Cultural  

1. A wooden flute played like a whistle. It was popular in the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries. Interest in it has been revived over the past few decades.

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Other Word Forms

• recordership noun

Etymology

Origin of recorder

1275–1325; Middle English recorder wind instrument ( record, -er ¹ ), recordour legal official (< Anglo-French recordour, Old French recordeour )

Explanation

A recorder is a machine that reproduces (or records) sound. A reporter might use a recorder during an interview. A recorder is also often a first musical instrument for kids, who crank out “Hot Cross Buns” at top volume. A digital recorder and the recorder on your cell phone are both examples of electronic recorders. A person whose job involves taking notes or keeping written records during a meeting can also be called a recorder. A now-obsolete meaning of the verb record is "practice a tune," and from this came the 15th century name of the musical instrument called a recorder. These wind instruments are still around, not just in elementary schools.

Example Sentences

CoreLogic aggregates public deed records from over 3,000 county clerk and recorder offices across the United States.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026

In “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” for example, the guitar tech Mike Batlan plays a prominent role, as does the four-track home recorder that Springsteen used to record “Nebraska.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 30, 2025

Turkish authorities found the cockpit voice recorder and black box from a private jet that crashed Wednesday killing the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides.

From Barron's • Dec. 24, 2025

Stone wandered around, with a recorder hidden in his fedora, documenting and then disassembling all that, as well as what he recorded in his travels.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2025

Since no one knew how to play them, Dorothée Gunther created instructional books to teach recorder to children.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

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