recorder

noun

re·​cord·​er ri-ˈkȯr-dər 

1

a

: the chief judicial magistrate of some British cities and boroughs

b

: a municipal judge with criminal jurisdiction of first instance and sometimes limited civil jurisdiction

2

: one that records

3

: any of a group of wind instruments ranging from soprano to bass that are characterized by a conical tube, a whistle mouthpiece, and eight finger holes

Illustration of recorder

• recorder 3

Examples of recorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The truck was going 51 mph, as measured by the fire truck’s vehicle data recorder, at the time of the crash on a street where the speed limit is 35 mph . —Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 14 May 2025

Police received a search warrant for the event data recorder in the Dodge a few days later and found that the car was traveling at 85 mph less than one second before the crash, according to the affidavit. —Angie Dimichele, Sun Sentinel, 9 May 2025

Motorola's Pay Attention is a recorder feature for meetings that uses AI to generate a transcript, similar to services like Google Recorder or Otter. —James Peckham, PC Magazine, 24 Apr. 2025

During those extended stints navigating Hubble's handrails, NASA astronauts Steven Smith and John Grunsfeld replaced all six gyroscopes inside the telescope's Rate Sensor Unites (RSUs) and installed a new transmitter and data recorder. —Josh Dinner, Space.com, 22 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing recorder

• cockpit voice recorder
• flight data recorder
• flight recorder
• strip-chart recorder
• tape recorder
• videocassette recorder
• videotape recorder
• wire recorder

Rhymes for recorder

• camcorder
• disorder
• reorder
• suborder
• transborder
• boarder
• border
• corder
• order
• warder

Kids Definition

recorder

noun

re·​cord·​er ri-ˈkȯrd-ər 

1

: a person or device that records

2

: a musical instrument consisting of a usually wooden tube with finger holes and a whistle mouthpiece

Legal Definition

recorder

noun

re·​cord·​er

1

: a judge of a municipal court

2

: a public officer charged with making a record of writings or transactions (as conveyances)

a recorder of deeds