ETYM Micro- + Greek phone sound, voice: cf. French microphone.
1. A device that converts sound waves into analog electrical signals. Additional hardware can convert the microphone’s output into digital data that a computer can process; for example, to record multimedia documents or analyze the sound signal.
2. A communications program that runs on the Macintosh computer.
A device for converting sound waves into electrical energy; SYN. mike.
Primary component in a sound-reproducing system, whereby the mechanical energy of sound waves is converted into electrical signals by means of a transducer. One of the simplest is the telephone receiver mouthpiece, invented by Scottish–US inventor Alexander Graham Bell in 1876; other types of microphone are used with broadcasting and sound-film apparatus.
Telephones have a carbon microphone, which reproduces only a narrow range of frequencies. For live music, a moving-coil microphone is often used. In it, a diaphragm that vibrates with sound waves moves a coil through a magnetic field, thus generating an electric current. The ribbon microphone combines the diaphragm and coil. The condenser microphone is most commonly used in recording and works by a capacitor.