scintillator

American

[sin-tl-ay-ter] / ˈsɪn tlˌeɪ tər /

noun

Physics.

a phosphor capable of producing scintillations.

scintillator British

/ ˈsɪntɪˌleɪtə /

noun

physics a phosphor that produces scintillations

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of scintillator

First recorded in 1870–75; scintillate + -or ²

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

scintillator

For particle detection, this ability is particularly useful because the light inside a scintillator may be extremely faint.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

It would tweak JUNO’s liquid scintillator so the detector could watch for another exotic nuclear physics phenomenon called neutrinoless double beta decay.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 22, 2023

It features 507 scintillator detectors, or high-energy particle detectors.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2018

The scintillator was embedded with chemicals that produce pulses of light generated by neutrino interactions.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 5, 2016

The scintillator consisted of 48 arc search-lights three feet in diameter totaling 2,600,000,000 beam candle-power.

From Artificial Light Its Influence upon Civilization by Matthew Luckiesh

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023