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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.

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

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

In 1998 Horizon was being developed by a firm called ICL, owned by Fujitsu, as a way of paying welfare benefits through Post Office counters using a swipe card.

From BBC • Jan. 12, 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