touchpad

US/ˈtʌt͡ʃˌpæd/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: touchpads

A touchpad is the panel a swimmer strikes to stop the clock. Hit the touchpad.

It is why races are decided in hundredths rather than by a judge's eye. A touchpad has to be struck hard enough, and a soft finish has cost people medals.

Definitions of touchpad

1nountouchpadThe panel a swimmer strikes to stop the clock.C1
“He reached the touchpad four hundredths ahead.”

touchpad is a device.

Where it comes from

Touch plus pad; timing pads came into championship swimming in the 1960s.

From touch + pad.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Swimming & Diving

Practise this word

touchpad in the wild

Like other pointing devices such as mice, touchpads or trackballs, operating system software translates manipulation of the device into movements of the pointer on the computer screen.
Pointing stick
A touchpad or trackpad is a type of pointing device.
Touchpad
Wireless touchpads are also available as detached accessories.
Touchpad
Cirque Corporation is an American subsidiary of the Japanese company Alps Alpine, which developed and commercialized the first successful capacitive touchpad, now widely used in notebook computers.
Cirque Corporation
Being related to the Korg Kaoss Pads, a Kaossilator is a synth that is played using a touchpad similar to those of laptop computers.
Korg Kaossilator

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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.

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