transistor
n. countablen. a tiny electronic part that controls the flow of electricity in a device. It can act like a switch or make signals stronger, and it is the building block of all modern computers.
n. a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It serves as the fundamental component of modern integrated circuits and microprocessors.
Modern computer chips contain billions of tiny transistors.
The invention of the transistor allowed engineers to build much smaller and more efficient computers than the old vacuum tube models.
By miniaturising the transistor to the nanometer scale, manufacturers have been able to pack an extraordinary amount of processing power into handheld consumer electronics.
Blend of transfer + resistor. Said to have been coined by American engineer John Robinson Pierce in 1947, who used transresistance as the basis for forming transistor.
Commonly used in the plural when discussing computer hardware or microchips.