Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An instrument that converts sound waves into an electric current, usually fed into an amplifier, a recorder, or a broadcast transmitter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An instrument for augmenting Small sounds. The instrument invented for this purpose by Mr. Hughes in 1878 is based on the fact that when substances possessing little electrical conductivity are, placed in the course of an electric current, the conductivity of the system is much increased by even the very smallest amount of pressure. The instrument has various forms, but in most of them one piece of charcoal is held loosely between two other pieces in such a manner as to be affected by the slightest vibrations conveyed to it by the air or by any other medium. The two external pieces are placed in connection with a telephone, and when the ear is placed at the ear-piece of the telephone the sounds caused by a fly walking on the wooden support of the microphone appear as loud as the tramp of a horse. By suitable arrangements the sounds of the human voice conveyed from a distance by the telephone can be made, audible in every part of a hall.
Wiktionary
- n. A device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or broadcast.
- v. transitive To put one or more microphones on or in.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Physics) An instrument for converting sounds into electrical signals, for the purpose of recording or amplifying the sounds. It produces its effects in various ways, as for example by the changes of intensity in an electric current, occasioned by the variations in the contact resistance of conducting bodies, especially of imperfect conductors, under the action of acoustic vibrations. Other forms of microphone may use changes in capacitance or other phenomena to transduce the sounds into electrical signals.
WordNet 3.0
- n. device for converting sound waves into electrical energy
Examples
“All camcorders have a built-in microphone, which is fine for recording videos in ideal conditions — but you will rarely have ideal conditions if you are videoblogging political events.”
“Mr. Taylor, with our sincere thanks for being here today, the microphone is yours.”
“Mr. Quinlan, with our sincere thanks for your being here, the microphone is yours.”
“Dr. Jeffrey, with our sincere thanks for being here today, the microphone is yours.”
“Beyond the microphone is an audience of an unknown number of listeners.”
“An audio player lets you tinker with speed and pitch of songs and of recorded sounds (using the built-in microphone).”
“But if your gadget giftee listens to their jams on a smartphone, headphones with a built-in microphone are a no-brainer, and the Klipsch Image S2m headset with mic is the way to go.”
“By the way, islamic thug rules say to scream torture anytime a microphone is in your face.”
“The iPhone 's built-in microphone worked well at close range, and an external microphone can be attached using the headphone jack and an adaptor.”
“The built-in microphone worked well when subjects were within a few feet of the camera, but I did notice that it picked up a lot of ambient noise, like street chatter and cab horns.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘microphone’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
abdominal, absorbent, accelerator, accumulator, acebutolol, acetamide, acetanilide, acetate, acetic acid, acetone, acetous, acetyl and 1171 more...
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SPOR - Olympic glossary
weightlift, orbitale, figure skate, speed skate, synchronizer, equestrian sport, bobsleigh, starting block, diesis, ligne, piste, water ski and 521 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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phono-, phon-, -phony
relating to sound
phonograph, phonics, phonology, telephony, phoneme, phone, telephone, phonautograph, phonetic, phonebook, phonography, phonolite and 107 more...
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Phones, But Not Telephones!
These are musical instruments or mythological figures instead!
saxophone, heckelphone, sarrusophone, mellophone, sousaphone, lamellophone, metallophone, xylophone, vibraphone, crystallophone, pyrophone, idiophone and 53 more...
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Junk
walrus, fascination, broadway, fickle, downturn, bridge, gargle, rotunda, mesh, fab, shortlife, strumming and 304 more...
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zachg's Words
verisimilitude, phenomenology, polyvalent, aleatoric, ontology, epistemology, solipsism, monad, hermeneutic, heuristic, performative, constative and 142 more...
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INTERP - VOCABULARY
The vocabulary of conference interpreting. I commend this list to those who want to know more about the profession and to those who wish to organize their knowledge about the profession. To aspirin...
retour language, A-language, B-language, C-language, relay language, take sy on relay, language booth, booth meeting, mic, mike, mission, freelance interpr... and 2086 more...
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computer connection outlets
a list I'm making with Saul
usb, power, video, firewire, headphones, speaker, microphone, phone, modem, ethernet, rs-232, infiniband and 6 more...
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ahoier's Words
the, if, myspace, first, last, forward, september, google, yahoo, wtf, lol, rofl and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for microphone.
ruzuzu "An instrument for augmenting Small sounds. The instrument invented for this purpose by Mr. Hughes in 1878 is based on the fact that when substances possessing little electrical conductivity are, placed in the course of an electric current, the conductivity of the system is much increased by even the very smallest amount of pressure. The instrument has various forms, but in most of them one piece of charcoal is held loosely between two other pieces in such a manner as to be affected by the slightest vibrations conveyed to it by the air or by any other medium. The two external pieces are placed in connection with a telephone, and when the ear is placed at the ear-piece of the telephone the sounds caused by a fly walking on the wooden support of the microphone appear as loud as the tramp of a horse. By suitable arrangements the sounds of the human voice conveyed from a distance by the telephone can be made, audible in every part of a hall."
--Cent. Dict. Aug 7, 2012