attractor

[ uh-trak-ter ]

noun
  1. a person or thing that attracts.

  2. Physics. a state or behavior toward which a dynamic system tends to evolve, represented as a point or orbit in the system's phase space.

Origin of attractor

1
First recorded in 1645–55

Words Nearby attractor

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use attractor in a sentence

  • Rapidly, but with unerring precision, the two ships were brought into place and held together by the attractor.

    The Skylark of Space | Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby
  • The Skylark was still in place, held immovable by the attractor, but what a sight she was!

    The Skylark of Space | Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby
  • As the animal showed no sign of leaving its retreat, Seaton pulled it out with the attractor and it broke for the surface.

    The Skylark of Space | Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby
  • Pliny in his origin of glass will have it that a loadstone is an attractor of glass, as well as of iron.

  • As an attractor of Negative Thought he is a glittering success.

    Nuggets of the New Thought | William Walker Atkinson,

Scientific definitions for attractor

attractor

[ ə-trăktər ]


  1. A set of states of a dynamic physical system toward which that system tends to evolve, regardless of the starting conditions of the system.♦ A point attractor is an attractor consisting of a single state. For example, a marble rolling in a smooth, rounded bowl will always come to rest at the lowest point, in the bottom center of the bowl; the final state of position and motionlessness is a point attractor.♦ A periodic attractor is an attractor consisting of a finite or infinite set of states, where the evolution of the system results in moving cyclically through each state. The ideal orbit of a planet around a star is a periodic attractor, as are periodic oscillations. A periodic attractor is also called a limit-cycle.♦ A strange attractor is an attractor for which the evolution through the set of possible physical states is nonperiodic (chaotic), resulting in an evolution through a set of states defining a fractal set. Most real physical systems (including the actual orbits of planets) involve strange attractors.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.