GPS

/dʒipiˈɛs/

/ˈdʒipiɛs/

GPS is a navigation tool that uses information from satellites. When your phone helps you find your way around a new city, you're using GPS.

While GPS might seem familiar, as the voice emanating from a car or smartphone telling you to turn left in a half mile or announcing,"You have reached your destination," there's actually much more to it. GPS, short for Global Positioning System, started as a 1978 U.S. Department of Defense project. Today it includes 24 orbiting satellites that give location information to any GPS receiver on the planet — including the one in your phone!

Definitions of GPS

1. noun

   a navigational system involving satellites and computers that can determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on Earth by computing the time difference for signals from different satellites to reach the receiver
   synonyms: Global Positioning System

   type of:

   navigational system

   a system that provides information useful in determining the position and course of a ship or aircraft