scanner

American  

[skan-er] / ˈskæn ər /

noun

• scanners
  plural

1. a person or thing that scans.

2. Also called optical reader, optical scanner. Computers. a device that scans printed, handwritten, barcode, or other visual data and encodes it into digital format.

3. Photography. any device for exposing an image on film, a sensitized plate, etc., by tracing light along a series of many closely spaced parallel lines.

4. (in aerial photography) a device for estimating the ratio of aircraft speed to aircraft altitude.

5. a photoelectric device for scanning a picture to determine automatically the density of the hue or value in each area for transmission by wire or radio or for preparation of color process printing plates.

6. a computer-aided electronic system using photoelectric cells to separate copy, as color illustrations, into its primary colors, correct color copy, and produce a set of color separations ready for proofing or printing.

7. Radio. a radio receiver, used especially by police, firefighters, and the press, that continuously tunes to preselected frequencies, broadcasting any signal that it detects.

8. Medicine/Medical, Biology. a device for examining a body, organ, tissue, or other biologically active material.

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scanner British  

/ ˈskænə /

noun

1. a person or thing that scans

2. a device, usually electronic, used to measure or sample the distribution of some quantity or condition in a particular system, region, or area

3. an aerial or similar device designed to transmit or receive signals, esp radar signals, inside a given solid angle of space, thus allowing a particular region to be scanned

4. any of various devices used in medical diagnosis to obtain an image of an internal organ or part See CAT scanner nuclear magnetic resonance scanner ultrasound scanner

5. informal a television outside broadcast vehicle

6. short for optical scanner

7. printing an electronic device which scans printed material and converts it to digital form

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• scanners
  plural

Etymology

Origin of scanner

First recorded in 1550–60; scan + -er ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scanner scanners

But officials say such a scanner had already been donated by the Chinese government.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

I’ve been seeing a steady drip of people sharing photos and videos of themselves on social media in butter-yellow bathrobes standing on a cylindrical 360-degree body scanner.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

In 2025, a preliminary study carried out with the 7-Tesla MRI scanner at the ULiège platform allowed the team to examine the locus coeruleus in greater detail.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026

Measuring those features requires instruments capable of revealing what lies beneath the rubble, similar to how a CT scanner can reveal bones and tissues inside the human body.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

The vet took a hand-held electronic scanner off the counter and waved it back and forth over the dog’s back.

From "Eleven" by Tom Rogers

Known as “wardrivers,” they use scanners to identify the radio signal given off by a camera and log it on DeFlock’s map as a potential site.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

More police forces are adopting A.I. facial scanners; the tech is being piloted in schools, buses, and stores as well.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

Today, lasers are used throughout modern society, from supermarket barcode scanners to vision correction procedures and advanced scientific instruments.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026

For instance, six NHS trusts in England declared a critical incident last week after hot weather adversely affected their IT systems, scanners, and cancer and lab equipment.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

The only thing they would actually pack carefully into boxes, at the last possible moment, were their two computers, along with monitors, hard drives, scanners, subwoofers, and printers.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz