Link Centre Dictionary

sonar

so·nar

UK/ˈsəʊ.nɑː/ US/ˈsoʊ.nɑːɹ/ fairly common

noun

1.

a measuring instrument that sends out an acoustic pulse in water and measures distances in terms of the time for the echo of the pulse to return

  • “sonar is an acronym for sound navigation ranging”
  • “asdic is an acronym for antisubmarine detection investigation committee”
Synonyms

Origin

Acronym of sound navigation and ranging. Coined by American scientist Frederick Vinton Hunt in the 1940s, roughly contemporaneously with radar. The lowercase form (sonar) is by anacronymic evolution.

Phrases

  • active sonar
  • Doppler sonar

Related words

Broader terms

Parts

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.