resonator

American  

[rez-uh-ney-ter] / ˈrɛz əˌneɪ tər /

noun

1. anything that resonates.

2. an appliance for increasing sound by resonance.

3. an instrument for detecting the presence of a particular frequency by means of resonance.

4. Electronics.

   1. a hollow enclosure cavity resonator made of conducting material of such dimensions that electromagnetic radiation of a certain frequency will resonate.

   2. any circuit having this frequency characteristic.

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resonator British  

/ ˈrɛzəˌneɪtə /

noun

1. any body or system that displays resonance, esp a tuned electrical circuit or a conducting cavity in which microwaves are generated by a resonant current

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Etymology

Origin of resonator

First recorded in 1865–70; resonate + -or ²

Example Sentences

The brittle, acoustically reflective shell combines with its curved, hollow shape to act as a Helmholtz resonator, rendering ambient background noise into the sound of the surf.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026

From the discovery four years ago that a pair of gold flakes creates a self-assembled resonator, researchers have now developed a method to study various fundamental forces.

From Science Daily • Oct. 23, 2025

Weaving around the many period-rich diegetic songs, he took a 1932 Dobro resonator guitar — the same one that Caton’s character, Sammy, plays in the film — and channeled his father’s blues-loving DNA.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2025

Others had done similar things, Rybka notes, but earlier efforts made the higher mode resonator ring strongly at one frequency or made it tunable, not both.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 20, 2024

The little spy closed the resonator and gathered his equipment together.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman