conductor

UK/kənˈdʌktɚ/US/kənˈdʌktɚ/

nounB23 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,787 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: conductors

A conductor is the person standing in front of an orchestra with a stick, pulling the sound out of a hundred players at once. Arms up and the strings come in; arms down and the hall goes quiet.

Two more conductors have nothing to do with music. In physics a conductor is any material that lets heat or electricity run through it — copper is a good conductor of electricity, plastic is a bad one, and a material that refuses altogether is an insulator. On the railway a conductor checks tickets and calls out the stops; he does not drive the train, and the person who does is the driver. Behind all three sits the verb conduct: an orchestra is conducted, metal conducts heat. Watch the ending — it is conductor with an o, never conducter.

Definitions of conductor

1nounconductorThe person who directs an orchestra or a choir, setting the speed and bringing each part in.B2~62%
“The conductor raised her arms and the hall fell silent.”
2nounmaterialA material that lets heat or electricity pass through it easily.B2~22%
Chmee2 · CC BY-SA 3.0
“Copper is one of the best conductors of electricity.”
3nounrailA railway or bus employee who checks tickets and collects fares.B1+~16%
Ben Schumin · CC BY-SA 3.0
“The conductor came through the carriage checking tickets.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 166 sentences found in the wild and placed 156 of them on a sense (10 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

con-DUCK-tor → a DUCK

A duck stands on the box in front of the orchestra with a white stick under one wing. Up goes the wing and every violin comes in. Down goes the wing and the room drops quiet.

hooks ontoduck

Also practised as

Where it comes from

English took the word straight from Latin conductor, by way of Old French conduitor and Middle French conductour, and barely wore it down on the road. Under all of them lies the ancient root *dewk-, which is the same root recorded for conduct — so the orchestra, the copper wire and the ticket collector are three faces of one job.

Proto-Indo-European
*dewk-
Latin
conductor
Old French
conduitor
Middle French
conductour
English, today
conductor

Middle French conductour, from Old French conduitor, from Latin conductor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music, Art & Culture, Science & Space, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 14 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

conductor in the wild

The moving particles are called charge carriers, which may be of several types, depending on the conductor.
Electric current
If the conductor is a wire, it is also called ground wire or earth wire.
Ground (electricity)
A PE conductor is an essential part of the safety provided by the earthing system.
Ground (electricity)
Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer and conductor known for his tone poems and operas.
Richard Strauss
In 1933 Strauss was appointed to two important musical positions in Nazi Germany: head of the Reichsmusikkammer and principal conductor of the Bayreuth Festival.
Richard Strauss

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Definitions of conductor

1nounconductorThe person who directs an orchestra or a choir, setting the speed and bringing each part in.B2~62%

“The conductor raised her arms and the hall fell silent.”

2nounmaterialA material that lets heat or electricity pass through it easily.B2~22%

“Copper is one of the best conductors of electricity.”

3nounrailA railway or bus employee who checks tickets and collects fares.B1+~16%

“The conductor came through the carriage checking tickets.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 166 sentences found in the wild and placed 156 of them on a sense (10 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.