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Synonyms

tape recorder

American  

noun

  1. an electrical device for recording or playing back sound, video, or data on magnetic tape.

tape recorder British  

noun

  1. an electrical device used for recording sounds on magnetic tape and usually also for reproducing them, consisting of a tape deck and one or more amplifiers and loudspeakers

"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 tape recorder

First recorded in 1940–45

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.

Running only 76 minutes, the movie is a veristic and voluble delight, an exercise in eavesdropping on a pair of smart, funny people who wear posterity—there’s a tape recorder running, after all—with wry lightness.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025

“Kissinger” teases viewers with an animated credit sequence prominently featuring a tape recorder.

From Salon • Nov. 1, 2025

He had been given a tape recorder and he soon learned the art of overdubbing, a vital part of what would become the trademark Beach Boys' sound.

From BBC • Jun. 11, 2025

Joined by several aides he’d tasked with helping him write his memoir, Johnson talked while a tape recorder kept track.

From Slate • May 19, 2025

Jamie and I played war while Claudia talked into the tape recorder.

From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.