transponder
or tran·spon·dor
[tran-spon-der]
- a radio, radar, or sonar transceiver that automatically transmits a signal upon reception of a designated incoming signal.
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Origin of transponder
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for transponder
Contemporary Examples
The tripwire for an unfolding plot to take control of the flight would be the transponder, operated by a switch beside the pilots.
However, to use the phrase “switched off” in relation to the transponder and the ACARS was in itself prejudicial.
With so much else crumbling, the transponder lies at the heart of this great mystery.
Government officials now admit the data system and transponder quit communicating after the pilots said things were OK.
The moment the transponder turned off means everything to the investigation—and it happened after the pilots said things were OK.
transponder
transpondor
- a type of radio or radar transmitter-receiver that transmits signals automatically when it receives predetermined signals
- the receiver and transmitter in a communications or broadcast satellite, relaying received signals back to earth
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Word Origin
C20: from transmitter + responder
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
Word Origin and History for transponder
n.
1945, from trans(mit) + (res)pond + agent noun suffix -er (1).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
transponder
[trăn-spŏn′dər]
- A radio or radar transmitter and receiver that responds to an incoming signal either by broadcasting its own predetermined signal (as in aircraft identification systems) or by relaying the incoming signal at a different frequency (as in satellite communications).
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.