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English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of operator in English

operator
noun [ C ]
uk
/ˈɒp.ər.eɪ.tər/ us
/ˈɑː.pə.reɪ.t̬ɚ/

operator noun [C] (PERSON OR BUSINESS)

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B2
someone whose job is to use and control a machine or vehicle:
a computer operator
B2
a company that does a particular type of business:
a tour operator
a person who helps to connect people on a phone system
a smooth, clever, etc. operator
someone who is skilled at dealing with people and getting what he or she wants from a situation:
He has shown himself to be a canny operator in wage negotiations.
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Acting and acts
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operator noun [C] (IN MATHEMATICS)

mathematics   specialized
a symbol that does something to a number or quantity in a calculation. For example, in 7 + y, the symbol + is the operator
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operand
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Mathematical symbols

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(Definition of operator from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

operator | American Dictionary

operator
noun [ C ]
us
/ˈɑp·əˌreɪt̬·ər/
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a person who makes something work or puts something into action:
a computer/machine operator
An operator is also a person who works on a telephone switchboard:
Dial or press zero for the operator.
usually disapproving An operator is a person who is often successful but seems too intelligent or speaks and acts too quickly and may not always be honest:
He’s a smooth operator.
(Definition of operator from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

operator | Business English

operator
noun [ C ]
uk
/ˈɒpəreɪtər/ us
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someone whose job is to use and control a machine, vehicle, or piece of equipment:
a camera/crane/forklift operator
The system lets you talk directly to a call centre operator.
a company that runs a particular type of business:
a cable/mobile-phone/hotel operator
The company is the owner and operator of several radio stations.
COMMUNICATIONS
a person who connects people on a phone system:
a switchboard operator
He worked as a 911 operator with the Cincinnati Police Department.
a smooth/slick/clever operator informal
a person who deals with people or problems in a clever way, especially for their own advantage:
He has shown himself to be a clever operator in wage negotiations.

See also

owner-operator
tour operator
(Definition of operator from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of operator

operator
Let us now discuss a fairly general way to produce non-degenerate transfer operators.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
To show this, we recall a basic result on compact operators and orthonormal systems.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
First, we examine moment-based interpolation operators for the first family of simplicial discrete differential forms.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Learning operators reside in those agents who per form a learning activity.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Two types of learning operators have been identified, that is, knowledge acquisition with or without knowledge transformation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
We have to provide a set of operators by which we can change representations.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Indexicals are thus best suited for operators that enjoy a short expression.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The usefulness of the operators designed in the first experiment could then be evaluated with a more difficult design problem and related scalability issues investigated.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Using these operators, we were able to either incorporate or not incorporate each of these four constraints independently.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In functional programming, catamorphisms are what are known as fold operators.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The other functions and operators are also shown here because of their use in the transformation process.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Most languages support some kind of overloading of operators, also known as ad hoc polymorphism.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
A typical solution is to add new operators to the abstract interface for freeing of abstract objects.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Note that complex widening operators, such as the ones that will be presented in the following sections, will not generally be stable.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In section 4 we give an interpretation of the types of our systems as monotone operators on value sets.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with operator

operator

These are words often used in combination with operator.

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boat operator
Tax law provides that those payments should be treated in exactly the same way as any payment that a boat operator would have received had his boat been sold.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
bus operator
Therefore, an added burden is placed on the bus operator in rural areas in which station closures have taken place.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
cable operator
The separation of cable operator and programme provider would also facilitate a multiplicity of programme providers on each cable system.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with operator
What is the pronunciation of operator?
 

Translations of operator

in Chinese (Traditional)
操作員，業務員, 駕駛員, 經營公司…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
操作员，业务员, 驾驶员, 经营公司…
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in Spanish
operario, operaria, empresa…
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in Portuguese
operador, operadora, empresa…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Telugu
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
चालक, संस्था, कंपनी…
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機械を操作する人, 運転手, 業者…
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santral görevlisi/memuru, operatör, bir makine/aleti kullanan kimse…
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conducteur/-trice [masculine-feminine], opérateur/-trice [masculine-feminine], opérateur [masculine]…
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operari, -ària, empresa…
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degeen die een machine bedient, telefonist…
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ஒரு இயந்திரம் அல்லது வாகனத்தைப் பயன்படுத்துவது மற்றும் கட்டுப்படுத்துவதை வேலையாக செய்யும் ஒரு நபர், ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட வகை வணிகத்தை செய்யும் நிறுவனம்…
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(मशीन या वाहन का) संचालक, ऑपरेटर, कोई कंपनी जो किसी खास तरह का व्यवसाय करती है…
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ઓપરેટર, મશીન અથવા વાહનનું, એક કંપની કે જે ચોક્કસ પ્રકારનો વ્યવસાય કરે છે…
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operatør, -fører, omstillingsdame…
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operatör, maskinist, växeltelefonist…
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operator…
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der Führer / die Führerin, der Telefonist / die Telefonistin…
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operatør [masculine], fører [masculine], tekniker [masculine]…
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آپیریٹر (کسی مشین کا چلانے والا), آپیریٹر, ایک خاص قسم کا کاروبار چلانے والی کمپنی یا ایجنسی…
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механік, оператор…
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యంత్రం లేదా వాహనాన్ని ఉపయోగించే మరియు నియంత్రించే వ్యక్తి, ఒక నిర్దిష్ట రకమైన వ్యాపారం నిర్వహించే సంస్థ…
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অপারেটর, একটি কোম্পানি যে একটি নির্দিষ্ট ধরনের ব্যাবসা করে…
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obsluhující pracovník, telefonista, -ka…
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operator…
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ผู้ควบคุม (เครื่องจักร), ผู้รับโทรศัพท์…
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người vận hành, người trực tổng đài điện thoại…
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telefonist-a/ka, operator/ka, obsługując-y/a…
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기계를 조작하는 사람, 특정한 일을 하는 사람, 전화 교환원…
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operatore, centralinista, commutatorista…
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