computer
pronunciation
How to pronounce computer in British English:
UK [kəmˈpjuːtə(r)]
How to pronounce computer in American English:
US [kəmˈpjuːtər]
-
- Noun:
- a machine for performing calculations automatically
- an expert at calculation (or at operating calculating machines)
Word Origin
- computer (n.)
- 1640s, "one who calculates," agent noun from compute (v.). Meaning "calculating machine" (of any type) is from 1897; in modern use, "programmable digital electronic computer" (1945 under this name; theoretical from 1937, as Turing machine). ENIAC (1946) usually is considered the first. Computer literacy is recorded from 1970; an attempt to establish computerate (adjective, on model of literate) in this sense in the early 1980s didn't catch on. Computerese "the jargon of programmers" is from 1960, as are computerize and computerization. WASHINGTON (AP) -- A New York Congressman says the use of computers to record personal data on individuals, such as their credit background, "is just frightening to me." [news article, March 17, 1968]
Example
- 1. You have to design a global computer network .
- 2. We could play computer games .
- 3. Computer chips and solar panels are made of the same basic stuff : thinly sliced silicon .
- 4. Lucent sold computer equipment to dot-coms .
- 5. Some computer scientists wanted to find out .