transistor
nounUK /trænˈzɪstə/
US /trænˈzɪstər/
A tiny part inside electronics that can turn electricity on and off or make it stronger.
The old radio stopped working because one of its transistors was broken.
RELATED WORDS
OTHER MEANINGS
2. A small portable radio that uses transistors instead of vacuum tubes.
Grandpa still listens to the baseball game on his little transistor.
3. A device that controls current flow and can amplify signals in electronic circuits.
Engineers used a transistor to boost the weak signal from the antenna.
4. A key building block of modern computers, found in huge numbers on chips.
A modern processor contains billions of transistors on a single chip.