projector
Americannoun
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projectors
plural
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an apparatus for throwing an image on a screen, as a motion-picture projector or magic lantern.
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a device for projecting a beam of light.
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a person who forms projects or plans.
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Archaic. a person who devises underhanded or unsound plans; schemer.
noun
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Full name: slide projector. an optical instrument that projects an enlarged image of individual slides onto a screen or wall
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Full name: film projector, cine projector. an optical instrument in which a strip of film is wound past a lens at a fixed speed so that the frames can be viewed as a continuously moving sequence on a screen or wall
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a device for projecting a light beam
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a person who devises projects
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of projector
Explanation
A projector is a machine you use for showing movies or images on a screen. In the days before digital cameras, tourists would frequently take pictures with slide film that they could show their friends later with a projector. Today, most theaters use digital equipment to show movies, although a few are still filmed on actual film and require an old-fashioned projector. While these days a teacher might use a large television and a laptop to show the class an educational film, they would once have had to use a projector and a film strip. Projector comes from the verb project, "cast an image," from Latin roots pro-, "forward," and iacere, "to throw."
Vocabulary lists containing projector
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:
“It’s sort of a variation on what we already know,” says Morris of learning to work the projector.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Other titles to be shown using the VistaVision projector include John Sturges’ “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” Robert Lewis’ musical “Anything Goes” and Michael Curtiz’s comedy “We’re No Angels.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
It then became the projector used at L.A.’s Vista Theater, one of only four theaters in the world able to show film in the VistaVision format.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
It works similarly to the projector but should provide a clearer image.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The next day after lunch, the film projector stood on its cart in the back of the room.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Examples include liquid-crystal panels used in projectors and optical chips found in telecommunications systems.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
Those unable to find glasses used other methods, including colanders as pinhole projectors to cast multiple images of the eclipse.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
“We build new projectors every day, but film projectors, using this film, it’s not practical. So we’ve got to find them and retrofit them and rebuild them, which is what we did for ‘Odyssey.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
“The problem is they haven’t made new Imax film projectors in about 50 years,” Gelfond told Variety on Wednesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Turning, I saw the shimmering image of the rock, thrown up by multiple projectors mounted to the surrounding mountain.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
