swipe card

noun

1. a plastic card with magnetically encoded data that is decoded when passed through a slotted electronic reader, especially for payment or identification purposes.

swipe card

noun

1. a credit card, identity card, etc, with a magnetic strip that holds encoded information that can be electronically interpreted as it is passed through the slot of a machine designed to read it

Word History and Origins

Origin of swipe card¹

First recorded in 1980–85