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CONDUCTOR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A device designed to transmit electricity, heat, etc.
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("conductor" is a kind of...):
device (an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conductor"):
bus; busbar (an electrical conductor that makes a common connection between several circuits)
cable; line; transmission line (a conductor for transmitting electrical or optical signals or electric power)
cord; electric cord (a light insulated conductor for household use)
electrode (a conductor used to make electrical contact with some part of a circuit)
heat sink (a metal conductor specially designed to conduct (and radiate) heat)
lightning conductor; lightning rod (a metallic conductor that is attached to a high point and leads to the ground; protects the building from destruction by lightning)
semiconductor; semiconductor device; semiconductor unit (a conductor made with semiconducting material)
bypass; electrical shunt; shunt (a conductor having low resistance in parallel with another device to divert a fraction of the current)
wave guide; waveguide (a hollow metal conductor that provides a path to guide microwaves; used in radar)
conducting wire; wire (a metal conductor that carries electricity over a distance)
Derivation:
conduct (transmit or serve as the medium for transmission)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The person who leads a musical group
Synonyms:
conductor; director; music director
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("conductor" is a kind of...):
musician (artist who composes or conducts music as a profession)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conductor"):
drum majorette; majorette (a female drum major)
drum major (the leader of a marching band or drum corps)
bandmaster (the conductor of a band)
bandleader (the leader of a dance band)
Instance hyponyms:
Sir Henry Joseph Wood; Sir Henry Wood; Wood (English conductor (1869-1944))
Baron Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber; Carl Maria von Weber; Weber (German conductor and composer of romantic operas (1786-1826))
Bruno Walter; Walter (German conductor (1876-1962))
Arturo Toscanini; Toscanini (Italian conductor of many orchestras worldwide (1867-1957))
George Szell; Szell (United States conductor (born in Hungary) (1897-1970))
Leopold Antoni Stanislaw Stokowski; Leopold Stokowski; Stokowski (United States conductor (born in Britain) (1882-1977))
Ozawa; Seiji Ozawa (United States conductor (born in Japan in 1935))
Eugene Ormandy; Ormandy (United States conductor (born in Hungary) (1899-1985))
Gustav Mahler; Mahler (Austrian composer and conductor (1860-1911))
Constant Lambert; Lambert; Leonard Constant Lambert (English composer and conductor (1905-1951))
Koussevitzky; Serge Koussevitzky; Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (United States conductor (born in Russia) who was noted for performing the works of contemporary composers (1874-1951))
Hindemith; Paul Hindemith (German neoclassical composer and conductor who believed that music should have a social purpose (1895-1963))
Arthur Fiedler; Fiedler (popular United States conductor (1894-1979))
Benjamin Britten; Britten; Edward Benjamin Britten; Lord Britten of Aldeburgh (major English composer of the 20th century; noted for his operas (1913-1976))
Bernstein; Leonard Bernstein (United States conductor and composer (1918-1990))
Derivation:
conduct (lead musicians in the performance of)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The person who collects fares on a public conveyance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("conductor" is a kind of...):
accumulator; collector; gatherer (a person who is employed to collect payments (as for rent or taxes))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conductor"):
conductress (a woman conductor)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A substance that readily conducts e.g. electricity and heat
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("conductor" is a kind of...):
material; stuff (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conductor"):
atomic number 29; copper; Cu (a ductile malleable reddish-brown corrosion-resistant diamagnetic metallic element; occurs in various minerals but is the only metal that occurs abundantly in large masses; used as an electrical and thermal conductor)
Ag; atomic number 47; silver (a soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal; occurs in argentite and in free form; used in coins and jewelry and tableware and photography)
semiconducting material; semiconductor (a substance as germanium or silicon whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator; its conductivity increases with temperature and in the presence of impurities)
Antonym:
insulator (a material such as glass or porcelain with negligible electrical or thermal conductivity)
Derivation:
conduct (transmit or serve as the medium for transmission)
Context examples:
Conductor failure manifests by high lead impedance either absolutely (above manufacturer's product specifications) or by a significant increase from previously stable chronic values.
(Cardiac Device Conductor Failure, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)
A long, thin, multistranded rope or rope-like object; a multistranded conductor designed to carry signals over a distance.
(Cable Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)
My conductor pressed me forward, conjuring me in a whisper “to give no offence, which would be highly resented;” and therefore I durst not so much as stop my nose.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
We were going up to the house, among some dark heavy trees, when he called after my conductor.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was almost as if the sound sprang up at the rising of his hand, just as the music of a great orchestra seems to leap under the bâton of the conductor.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Researchers have found that certain ultra-thin magnetic materials can switch from insulator to conductor under high pressure, a phenomenon that could be used in the development of next-generation electronics and memory storage devices.
(‘Magnetic graphene’ switches between insulator and conductor, University of Cambridge)
A unit of electrical resistance equal to the resistance between two points on a conductor when a potential difference of one volt between them produces a current of one ampere.
(Ohm, NCI Thesaurus)
A SI derived unit of an electric current density which is equal to an electric current of one ampere circulating in a homogeneous conductor with a cross section area of one square meter.
(Ampere per Square Meter, NCI Thesaurus)
I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A SI derived unit of quantity of electricity, equal to the quantity of charge transferred in one second across a conductor in which there is a constant current of one ampere.
(Coulomb, NCI Thesaurus)
