Sonar

//ˈsoʊ.nɑːɹ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Artificial echolocation by use of electronic equipment, with hydrophones to locate objects underwater, using the same wave-analysis principles that radar uses. uncountable, usually

    "They were able to detect the sunken wreck using sonar."

  2. 2
    Dated form of sonar. alt-of, countable, dated, uncountable
  3. 3
    a measuring instrument that sends out an acoustic pulse in water and measures distances in terms of the time for the echo of the pulse to return wordnet
  4. 4
    A device that provides such echolocation. countable

    "They finally bought a new sonar to replace the 40-year-old unit that sometimes didn't work right."

  5. 5
    Any echolocation. broadly, countable, uncountable

    "Submarines and bats both use sonar to navigate."

Synonyms

All synonyms
asdicecholocationasdicastronavigationbathometrybathymetry

Example

More examples

"Sonar uses sound waves to 'see' in the water."

Etymology

Etymology 1

By anacronymic evolution from SONAR.

Etymology 2

Acronym of sound navigation and ranging. Coined by American scientist Frederick Vinton Hunt in the 1940s, roughly contemporaneously with radar. The lowercase form (sonar) is by anacronymic evolution.

Related phrases

Doppler sonaractive sonar

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.