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operator

 - 6 dictionary results

op⋅er⋅a⋅tor

  [op-uh-rey-ter]
Use operator in a Sentence
–noun
1. a person who operates a machine, apparatus, or the like: a telegraph operator.
2. a person who operates a telephone switchboard, esp. for a telephone company.
3. a person who manages a working or industrial establishment, enterprise, or system: the operators of a mine.
4. a person who trades in securities, esp. speculatively or on a large scale.
5. a person who performs a surgical operation; a surgeon.
6. Mathematics.
a. a symbol for expressing a mathematical operation.
b. a function, esp. one transforming a function, set, etc., into another: a differential operator.
7. Informal.
a. a person who accomplishes his or her purposes by devious means; faker; fraud.
b. a person who is adroit at overcoming, avoiding, or evading difficulties, regulations, or restrictions.
c. a person who is extremely successful with or smoothly persuasive to members of the opposite sex.
8. Genetics. a segment of DNA that interacts with a regulatory molecule, preventing transcription of the adjacent region.
Origin:
1590–1600; < LL, equiv. to operā(rī) to work, effect (see operate ) + L -tor -tor
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To operator
op·er·a·tor   (ŏp'ə-rā'tər)   
n.  

  1. One who operates a machine or device: a switchboard operator.

  2. The owner or manager of a business or an industrial enterprise.

  3. One who deals aggressively in stocks or commodities.

  4. Informal A person who is adept at accomplishing goals through shrewd or unscrupulous maneuvers.

  5. Mathematics A function, especially one from a set to itself, such as differentiation of a differentiable function or rotation of a vector.

  6. A logical operator.

  7. Genetics A chromosomal segment of DNA that regulates the activity of the structural genes of an operon by interacting with a specific repressor.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: op·er·a·tor
Pronunciation: 'äp-(&-)"rAt-&r
Function: noun
1 : one (as a dentist or surgeon) whoperforms surgical operations
2 : a binding site in a DNA chain at which a genetic repressor binds to inhibit the initiation of transcription of messenger RNA by one or more nearbystructural genes called also operator gene; —compare OPERON
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

operator op·er·a·tor (ŏp'ə-rā'tər)
n.
An operator gene.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Computing Dictionary

operator programming
A symbol used as a function, with infix syntax if it has two arguments (e.g. "+") or prefix syntax if it has only one (e.g. Boolean NOT). Many languages use operators for built-in functions such as arithmetic and logic.
(1995-04-30)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Encyclopedia

operator

in mathematics, any symbol that indicates an operation to be performed. Examples are x (which indicates the square root is to be taken) and ddx (which indicates differentiation with respect to x is to be performed). An operator may be regarded as a function, transformation, or map, in the sense that it associates or "maps" elements from one set to elements from another set. See also automorphism.

Learn more about operator with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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