Definitions

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

  • noun An instrument used for measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An instrument used to measure magnetic forces or the strength of a magnetic field, especially one used to measure the intensity of the earth's magnetic force at any place.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physics) An instrument for measuring the intensity of magnetic forces; also, less frequently, an instrument for determining any of the terrestrial magnetic elements, as the dip and declination.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics An instrument used to measure the intensity and direction of a magnetic field, especially at points on the Earth's surface.

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

  • noun a meter to compare strengths of magnetic fields

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Security Staff at Reagan Airport forced a seputgenerian Congressman to strip to his underwear, refusing to believe that the thing that was ringing the magnetometer was his artificial hip.

    Boing Boing: January 6, 2002 - January 12, 2002 Archives 2002

  • CAMPOS: Well, the information I've gotten is that we're closing terminals 4 through 8 because a-- one of the machines that they use to detect metal, it's called the magnetometer, hasn't been working since about, as near as they can find, about 5: 00 AM.

    CNN Transcript Feb 28, 2002 2002

  • Once he isolated the ideal crystals, Tarduno used a device called a superconducting quantum interface device, or SQUID magnetometer, which is normally used to troubleshoot computer chips because it's extremely sensitive to the smallest magnetic fields.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • Compass, has now been rendered obsolete by the iPhone 3G S, which has a built-in component called a magnetometer that gives the phone its own built-in compass.

    VentureBeat 2009

  • The goal is to locate subsurface resources and to determine the geographic extent of the battlefield using GIS/GPS work, LiDAR and remote sensing methods such as magnetometer and soil resistivity surveys and archaeological testing.

    All Points Blog 2010

  • By combing the iPhone 3.0 configuration files, MacRumors 'sources also found evidence of a "magnetometer", which could mean a digital compass, and "voice control", which could mean voice dialing.

    PC Advisor News 2009

  • Further digging into the various configuration files turned up references to an "auto-focus camera," "magnetometer," and "Voice Control."

    Ars Technica 2009

  • Also, I don't know if I care or not, but I don't see any mention of a "magnetometer" which seems to be pretty common in high end phones these days.

    Boy Genius Report 2009

  • By combing the iPhone 3.0 configuration files, MacRumors 'sources also found evidence of a "magnetometer," which could mean a digital compass, and "voice control," which could mean voice dialing.

    ARN News 2009

  • By combing the iPhone 3.0 configuration files, MacRumors 'sources also found evidence of a "magnetometer," which could mean a digital compass, and "voice control," which could mean voice dialing.

    ARN News 2009

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