superheterodyne

[ soo-per-het-er-uh-dahyn ]

adjective

1. denoting, pertaining to, or using a method of processing received radio or video signals in which an incoming modulated wave is changed by the heterodyne process into a lower-frequency wave and then subjected to amplification and subsequent detection.

noun

1. a superheterodyne receiver.

Word History and Origins

Origin of superheterodyne¹

First recorded in 1920–25; super(sonic) + heterodyne

Example Sentences

His inventiveness continued during WWI as he served as a major in the Army’s Signal Corps labs, and while there he invented the superheterodyne circuit, which again revolutionized radio.

From Time

Ten-tube, all-wave, superheterodyne, with fancy gadrooned moldings and a two-tone walnut cabinet.

From Literature

Sears does not sell a twelve-tube Superheterodyne console radio any longer, but at $52.95 it could hardly be a match for this year's $39.95 portable AM-FM that also carries the audio portion of TV channels.

From Time Magazine Archive

Grey-cast, billiard-bald Major Edwin Howard Armstrong, deviser of the frequency modulation system of broadcasting, has twice in his time revolutionized radio�first by the regenerative, or feedback, circuit, which outmoded crystal sets; next by his superheterodyne hookup, the basis for present-day one-dial tuning.

From Time Magazine Archive

In 1913 he worked out the regenerative circuit, which outmoded crystal receiving sets with a sensitive vacuum tube system; his superheterodyne circuit, developed in 1918 while serving in France, is still the basic circuit of AM radio.

From Time Magazine Archive