transistor

See also: Transistor, transístor, and transistör

English

Etymology

Blend of transfer +‎ resistor. Said to have been coined by American engineer John Robinson Pierce in 1947.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪstə(ɹ)

Noun

transistor (plural transistors)

1. (semiconductors) A solid-state semiconductor device, with three terminals, which can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation, and many other functions.
2. (dated, informal) A transistor radio.
   • 1978, Billy Joel, "Half a Mile Away":

     Turn your transistor on and let the music play

Usage notes

Transistors, when referring to semiconductor components, may encompass field-effect transistors (FET), unijunction transistors (UJT), or bipolar junction transistor (BJT); however, often the bipolar type is assumed.

Derived terms

• FET
• silicon planar epitaxial transistor
• TFT
• transistorize
• transistorized
• transistor radio
• UJT

 

Translations

solid-state semiconductor device, with three terminals

• Arabic: تْرَانْزِسْتُور‎ m (tranzistur)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: transistor (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 電晶體 (din⁶ zing¹ tai²), 晶體管 (zing¹ tai² gun²), 原子粒

  Mandarin: 晶體管 (zh), 晶体管 (zh) (jīngtǐguǎn), (Taiwan) 電晶體, 电晶体 (diànjīngtǐ)

• Czech: tranzistor (cs) m
• Dutch: transistor (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: transistor (et)
• Finnish: transistori (fi)
• French: transistor (fr) m
• Galician: transistor m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Transistor (de) m
• Greek: κρυσταλλοτρίοδος (el) f (krystallotríodos), τρανζίστορ (el) n (tranzístor)
• Hebrew: טרנזיסטור‎ (he) m (tranzístor)
• Hungarian: tranzisztor (hu)
• Icelandic: smári (is) m

• Japanese: トランジスタ (ja) (toranjisuta)
• Khmer: ត្រង់ស៊ីស្ទ័រ (trɑngsiistɔə)
• Korean: 트랜지스터 (ko) (teuraenjiseuteo)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: tranzistorius m
• Maori: whitiārai
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: tranzystor (pl) m
• Portuguese: transístor (pt) m
• Romanian: tranzistor (ro) n
• Russian: транзи́стор (ru) m (tranzístor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: транзистор m

  Roman: tranzistor (sh) m

• Spanish: transistor (es) m
• Swedish: transistor (sv) c
• Tagalog: saligwil
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: transistör (tr)
• Vietnamese: bóng bán dẫn

small portable radio

• Catalan: transistor (ca) m
• Czech: tranzistor (cs) m, tranďák m
• Estonian: transistor (et)
• Galician: transistor m

• Hebrew: טרנזיסטור‎ (he) m (tranzístor)
• Italian: radiolina (it) f
• Lithuanian: tranzistorius m
• Russian: транзи́стор (ru) m (tranzístor), радиоприёмник (ru) m (radioprijómnik), приёмник (ru) m (prijómnik)
• Swedish: transistor (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: ^{(please verify)} transistoro (io)

Further reading

• transistor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

---

French

Etymology

English transistor

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɑ̃.zis.tɔʁ/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

transistor m (plural transistors)

1. transistor
2. (metonymically) transistor radio
   • 1982, “Un été sans toi”, performed by Charles Aznavour:

     Sur mon matelas / Je rêve à ton corps / Soûlé par la voix / De mon transistor

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

Further reading

• “transistor”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

---

Galician

Noun

transistor m (plural transistores)

1. a transistor (semiconductor device)
2. a transistor radio

---

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English transistor.

Noun

transistor m (invariable)

1. transistor (device)
2. transistor radio

Derived terms

• fototransistor

---

Portuguese

Noun

transistor m (plural transistores)

1. Brazil form of transístor

---

Romanian

Noun

transistor n (plural transistoare)

1. Alternative form of tranzistor

Declension

Declension of transistor

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) transistor	transistorul	(niște) transistoare	transistoarele
genitive/dative	(unui) transistor	transistorului	(unor) transistoare	transistoarelor
vocative	transistorule		transistoarelor

---

Spanish

Noun

transistor m (plural transistores)

1. transistor

Further reading

• “transistor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

---

Swedish

Noun

transistor c

1. (electronics) a transistor (semiconductor component)
2. (dated) a transistor, a transistor radio

Declension

Declension of transistor
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	transistor	transistorn	transistorer	transistorerna
Genitive	transistors	transistorns	transistorers	transistorernas