swipe card

American

noun

a plastic card with magnetically encoded data that is decoded when passed through a slotted electronic reader, especially for payment or identification purposes.

swipe card British

noun

a credit card, identity card, etc, with a magnetic strip that holds encoded information that can be electronically interpreted as it is passed through the slot of a machine designed to read it

"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 swipe card

First recorded in 1980–85

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:

swipe card

Two said that at one point he had his own swipe card, so he could come and go freely.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025

Ms Tomkinson said the method of staff access to insulin had since changed with a "clear audit trail" provided by a "bespoke swipe card that is absolutely aligned to an individual staff member".

From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2025

Maine authorities have managed to thwart poaching in the state using new controls including a swipe card system meant to deter illegal sales.

From Seattle Times ● May 1, 2024

Can it successfully use the weird electronic swipe card that I need to get into our office building?

From The Verge ● Feb. 11, 2022

Locking myself out of the lab because I left my swipe card on my desk was a reasonably common occurrence.

From Nature ● May 7, 2020

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