COMPUTER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Computer

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/kəmpjˈutər/ Listen

noun

Computer n.

One who computes.

(Computers) An electronic device for performing calculations automatically. It consists of a clock to provide voltage pulses to synchronize the operations of the devices within the computer, a central processing unit, where the arithmetical and logical operations are performed on data, a random-access memory, where the programs and data are stored for rapid access, devices to input data and output results, and various other peripheral devices of widely varied function, as well as circuitry to support the main operations. Note: This modern sense of computer comprises the stored-program computers, in which multiple steps in a calculation may be stored within the computer itself as instructions in a program, and are then executed by the computer without further intervention of the operator. Different types of computer are variously called analog computer, number cruncher, number-cruncher, digital computer, and pari-mutuel machine, totalizer, totaliser, totalizator, totalisator.

Synonyms: data processor, electronic computer, information processing system.

(Computers) Same as digital computer.

See images of 'Computer'

Etymology of 'Computer'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Computer" Quotes from Famous Books

... In order to make this file more accessible to the average computer user, the preparer has found it necessary to re-arrange some of the material. The preparer takes full responsibility for his choice ...

— Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica • Homer and Hesiod

... specialized fonts and typesetting conventions. I have adopted modern computer programming notation using only ASCII characters. The square root of 9 is thus rendered as squareroot(9) and the square of 9 is square(9). 10 divided by 5 is (10/5) and 10 multiplied by 5 ...

— Instruction for Using a Slide Rule • W. Stanley

... computer of time. He might have sat there half an hour or half a day, he could not have told which, when he heard the voice of his kind ...

— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... working their way up the central corridor past the communications and computer rooms and the laboratory into the main control and observation room. Here they found a thin, dark-haired young man in a bright blue collar and cuff, sitting ...

— Star Surgeon • Alan Nourse

... small case which contained books, the latest astronomical data sheets, and a space computer and scratch board. These were obviously for Rip's personal use. He examined them. There were all the references he would need for computing orbit, speed, and just about anything else that might be required. He had to admire the thoroughness of whoever ...

— Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet • Harold Leland Goodwin

... already been made. In addition to action taken by transshippers to reduce the number of coal classifications used whenever possible, by the Norfolk and Western Railroad to upgrade its computer capability to quickly inventory its coal cars in its yards, and by the Chessie Railroad which is reactivating Pier 15 in Newport News and has established a berth near its Curtis Bay Pier in Baltimore to decrease delays in vessel ...

— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... way, Americans produced a great middle class and security in old age; built unrivaled centers of learning and opened public schools to all; split the atom and explored the heavens; invented the computer and the microchip; and deepened the wellspring of justice by making a revolution in civil rights for African Americans and all minorities, and extending the circle of citizenship, opportunity and dignity ...

— U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses • Various

... This entry lists the number of Internet hosts available within a country. An Internet host is a computer connected directly to the Internet; normally an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) computer is a host. Internet users may use either a hard-wired terminal, at an institution with a mainframe computer ...

— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... in the second edition has generally been adhered to, and the contents list has been built on this basis. The Indexes have been omitted because of the lack of pagination in etext. Computer searches also make ...

— Yorkshire Dialect Poems • F.W. Moorman