computer

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: com=put=er

CIDE DICTIONARY

computer, n. 

•  One who computes.
•  an electronic device for performing calculations automatically. It consists of a clock to provide voltage pulses to synchronize the operations of the devices within the computer, a central processing unit, where the arithmetical and logical operations are performed on data, a random-access memory, where the programs and data are stored for rapid access, devices to input data and output results, and various other peripheral devices of widely varied function, as well as circuitry to support the main operations.

  "This modern sense of computer comprises the stored-program computers, in which multiple steps in a calculation may be stored within the computer itself as instructions in a program, and are then executed by the computer without further intervention of the operator. Different types of computer are variously called analog computer, number cruncher, number-cruncher, digital computer, and pari-mutuel machine, totalizer, totaliser, totalizator, totalisator."  [WordNet 1.5]
•  same as digital computer.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

computer, n.
1 a usu. electronic device for storing and processing data (usu. in binary form), according to instructions given to it in a variable program.
2 a person who computes or makes calculations.

Idiom

computer-literate able to use computers; familiar with the operation of computers. computer science the study of the principles and use of computers. computer virus a hidden code within a computer program intended to corrupt a system or destroy data stored in it.

THESAURUS

computer

IBM machine, IDA, Teleplotter, Telereader, abacist, accountant, actuary, adder, analog computer, analytical control unit, analyzer, bookkeeper, calculator, coder, collator, compiler, computer hardware, computer unit, data processor, decoder, detector, differential, differential analyzer, digital computer, digital graph plotter, divider, electronic brain, electronic computer, estimator, figurer, hardware, information machine, integrator, memory tubes, multiplier, phase discriminator, position coder, printer, printing calculator, receptor, reckoner, relay, selective calculator, selector, statistician, storage unit, telecomputer, thinking machine, transmitter, tristimulus computer

ROGET THESAURUS

computer

Numeration

N numeration, numbering, pagination, tale, recension, enumeration, summation, reckoning, computation, supputation, calculation, calculus, algorithm, algorism, rhabdology, dactylonomy, measurement, statistics, arithmetic, analysis, algebra, geometry, analytical geometry, fluxions, differential calculus, integral calculus, infinitesimal calculus, calculus of differences, dead reckoning, muster, poll, census, capitation, roll call, recapitulation, account, notation, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, rule of three, practice, equations, extraction of roots, reduction, involution, evolution, estimation, approximation, interpolation, differentiation, integration, abacus, logometer, slide rule, slipstick, tallies, Napier's bones, calculating machine, difference engine, suan- pan, adding machine, cash register, electronic calculator, calculator, computer, arithmetician, calculator, abacist, algebraist, mathematician, statistician, geometer, programmer, accountant, auditor, numeral, numerical, arithmetical, analytic, algebraic, statistical, numerable, computable, calculable, commensurable, commensurate, incommensurable, incommensurate, innumerable, unfathomable, infinite, quantitatively, arithmetically, measurably, in numbers.