oscilloscope
Dictionary.com Unabridged:
a device that uses a cathode-ray tube or similar instrument to depict on a screen periodic changes in an electric quantity, as voltage or current.
American Heritage® Dictionary:
An electronic instrument that produces an instantaneous trace on the screen of a cathode-ray tube corresponding to oscillations of voltage and current.
Online Etymology Dictionary:
1915, "instrument for visually recording an electrical wave," a hybrid formed from L. oscillare "to swing"
WordNet:
electronic equipment that provides visual images of varying electrical quantities
American Heritage® Science Dictionary:
An electronic instrument used to observe and measure changing electrical signals. The amplitude of the signal as it varies with time is displayed graphically on a screen as a line stretching from left to right, with displacements up and down indicating the amplitude of the signal. Oscilloscopes are used to diagnose problems in electronic signal-processing devises, such as computers or stereos, and to monitor electrical activity in the body, such as that of heartbeats.
American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary:
An electronic instrument that produces an instantaneous trace on the screen that corresponds to oscillations of voltage and current.
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary:
an instrument in which the variations in afluctuating electrical quantity appear temporarily as a visible waveform on the fluorescent screen of a cathode-ray tube
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary:
An instrument for showing visually the changes in a varying current; an oscillograph.
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