Refine this word faster
Rotor
Definitions
- 1 A rotating part of a mechanical device; for example, in an electric motor, generator, alternator, or pump.
"Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work."
- 2 rotating mechanism consisting of an assembly of rotating airfoils wordnet
- 3 A rotating part of a mechanical device; for example, in an electric motor, generator, alternator, or pump.; In a disc brake, the metal disc attached to the wheel hub.
- 4 the rotating armature of a motor or generator wordnet
- 5 A rotating part of a mechanical device; for example, in an electric motor, generator, alternator, or pump.; The wing of a helicopter or other rotary-wing aircraft.
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 the revolving bar of a distributor wordnet
- 7 A type of powerful horizontal-axis atmospheric vortex generated by the interaction of strong winds with mountainous terrain.
"A glider instructor, who had been in the COS area for more than 25 years, was interviewed. He stated that around 1200 on the day of the accident, he observed a rotor hit the ground with estimated wind speeds of 70 to 80 miles per hour."
- 8 A quantity having magnitude, direction, and position.
"These quantities are unit lengths measured anywhere on the axes in the positive directions. They have magnitude, direction, and position, and are thus what I have called rotors (short for rotators) to distinguish them from vectors, which have magnitude and direction but no position."
- 9 The set of cells within an oscillator that switch between being alive and dead over the course of the oscillator's period.
"The following figure shows examples of the most versatile class of these oscillators. The first emulates the p10 shown above; the second has period 62 and a rotor of size 10."
- 10 An amusement park and carnival ride consisting of a rotating cylindrical chamber in which centrifugal force adheres riders to the wall as the floor drops away, creating a sensation of defying gravity.
Etymology
From an irregular clipping of rotator, originally in mathematics, coined by English mathematician and philosopher William Kingdon Clifford based on vector, see quotations. Doublet of rota and ruote.
See also for "rotor"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: rotor