voltage divider

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A number of resistors in series provided with taps at certain points to make available a fixed or variable fraction of the applied voltage, commonly used in the power supplies of electronic devices.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun resistors connected in series across a voltage source; used to obtain a desired fraction of the voltage