replicator

English

Etymology

replicate +‎ -or

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛplɪkeɪtɚ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛplɪkeɪtə/
• Hyphenation: rep‧li‧ca‧tor

Noun

replicator (plural replicators)

1. Something capable of self-replication, like a gene or meme.
   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene:

     We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.

2. (science fiction) A technological device that replicates physical objects.
   • 2001 Greg Cox The Eugenics Wars Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek), Star Trek, →ISBN, page 76

     Why, this planet was still centuries away from developing such necessities as personal replicators or portable nano-intelligences...

   • 2001 Judith Barad, Ed Robertson The Ethics of Star Trek, Harper Perennial, →ISBN, page 74

     either there is not such thing as a concept known as 'spacecraft' (inwhich case, any talk of spacecraft, warp drives, inertial dampers, replicators, and the like would be pointless), or indeed there is.

   • 2007 Douglas Hofstadter I Am a Strange Loop, Basic Books, →ISBN, pages 301-302

     The scanner here on Earth will destroy my brain and body, while recording the exact states of all of my cells. It will the transmit this information by radio. Travelling at the speed of light, the message will take three minutes to reach the Replicator on Mars. This will then create, out of new matter, a brain and body exactly like mine. It will be in this body that I shall wake up.

Related terms

• replica
• replicant
• replicate
• replication
• replicative
• replicatory
• reply

Translations

technical device

• Italian: replicatore m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: replikator m

Further reading

• “replicator”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “replicator”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

---

Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) replicātor

1. second-person singular future passive imperative of replicō
2. third-person singular future passive imperative of replicō