projector

/prəˈdʒɛktər/

/prəˈdʒɛktə/

Other forms: projectors

A projector is a machine you use for showing movies or images on a screen. In the days before digital cameras, tourists would frequently take pictures with slide film that they could show their friends later with a projector.

Today, most theaters use digital equipment to show movies, although a few are still filmed on actual film and require an old-fashioned projector. While these days a teacher might use a large television and a laptop to show the class an educational film, they would once have had to use a projector and a film strip. Projector comes from the verb project, "cast an image," from Latin roots pro-, "forward," and iacere, "to throw."

Definitions of projector

1. noun

   an optical device for projecting a beam of light
   type of:

   optical device

   a device for producing or controlling light
2. noun

   an optical instrument that projects an enlarged image onto a screen
   types:

   epidiascope

   an optical projector that gives images of both transparent and opaque objects

   front projector

   a projector for digital input

   cine projector, film projector, movie projector

   projects successive frames from a reel of film to create moving pictures

   overhead projector

   a projector operated by a speaker; projects the image over the speaker's head

   slide projector

   projector that projects an enlarged image of a slide onto a screen

   bioscope

   a kind of early movie projector

   magic lantern

   an early form of slide projector

   type of:

   optical instrument

   an instrument designed to aid vision