vacuum tube

noun

: an electron tube evacuated to a high degree of vacuum

Examples of vacuum tube in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The aim of the project is to build a high-speed railway that carries 40-ft (12.2-m) shipping containers in a partial vacuum tube at speeds rivaling that of flight. Joe Salas, New Atlas, 14 Mar. 2025 Thus, the most expensive components of the air defenses were not the radars or the weapons but the information system that would have been required to operate them, a capability that, in the era of vacuum tube computers, would have involved exorbitant costs. Stephen Peter Rosen, Foreign Affairs, 14 Mar. 2025 In the 1940s and ’50s, room-sized mainframe computers relied on thousands of vacuum tubes, resisters, capacitors and more. Gerui Wang, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025 An old-fashioned triode vacuum tube does that using a voltage applied to its grid electrode. IEEE Spectrum, 27 Mar. 2022 See All Example Sentences for vacuum tube

Word History

First Known Use

1859, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of vacuum tube was in 1859

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Cite this Entry

“Vacuum tube.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vacuum%20tube. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.

Kids Definition

vacuum tube

noun
: an electron tube from which most of the air has been removed

Medical Definition

vacuum tube

noun
: an electronic device in which conduction by electrons takes place through a vacuum within a sealed glass or metal container and which has various uses based on the controlled flow of electrons

More from Merriam-Webster on vacuum tube

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