operator
Americannoun
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a person who operates a machine, apparatus, or the like.
a telegraph operator.
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a person who operates a telephone switchboard, especially for a telephone company.
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a person who manages a working or industrial establishment, enterprise, or system.
the operators of a mine.
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a person who trades in securities, especially speculatively or on a large scale.
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a person who performs a surgical operation; a surgeon.
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Mathematics.
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a symbol for expressing a mathematical operation.
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a function, especially one transforming a function, set, etc., into another.
a differential operator.
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Informal.
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a person who accomplishes goals or purposes by devious means; faker; fraud.
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a person who is adroit at overcoming, avoiding, or evading difficulties, regulations, or restrictions.
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a person who is extremely successful with or smoothly persuasive to potential sexual or romantic partners.
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Genetics. a segment of DNA that interacts with a regulatory molecule, preventing transcription of the adjacent region.
noun
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a person who operates a machine, instrument, etc, esp, a person who makes connections on a telephone switchboard or at an exchange
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a person who owns or operates an industrial or commercial establishment
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a speculator, esp one who operates on currency or stock markets
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informal a person who manipulates affairs and other people
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maths any symbol, term, letter, etc, used to indicate or express a specific operation or process, such as Δ (the differential operator)
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Mathematics A function, especially one from a set to itself, such as differentiation of a differentiable function or rotation of a vector. In quantum mechanics, measurable quantities of a physical system, such as position and momentum, are related to unique operators applied to the wave equation describing the system.
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A logical operator.
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Genetics A segment of chromosomal DNA that regulates the activity of the structural genes of an operon by interacting with a specific repressor.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of operator
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Late Latin, equivalent to operā(rī) “to work, effect” ( see operate) + Latin -tor noun suffix ( see -tor)
Explanation
An operator is a person who runs a machine, equipment, or a vehicle. If you want to be a jackhammer operator some day, you might hope to work on a road crew of for a construction company. An operator operates, or controls, something. You could be a radio operator, a heavy machinery operator, or even a telephone operator — or you can be the operator, or manager, of a business. If you start your own dog walking company, you can call yourself an "owner-operator." The Latin root of both operator and operate is operari, "to work," and "to cause."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But as a private operator, it must balance its wildfire response with its commitments to commercial clients.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Pacific Bells, the Washington-based operator that runs the Ohio restaurant, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
EchoStar is the operator of Boost Mobile, satellite-TV unit Dish DBS and satellite-internet service Hughes.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump was aware of the teleprompter operator and that staffer was now on unpaid leave, before adding Perez would no longer work at the White House.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
In those days, phone calls were manually patched through by an operator at a switchboard, with long-distance calls often relayed through multiple switchboards.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Baxter says both the Scottish and UK governments should look at "publicly available" firefighting aircraft during the wildfire season, rather than relying on private operators.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
A handful of commercial helicopter operators like Skyhook, based out of Fife Airport in Glenrothes, will provide this specialist response.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
The challenge now is intent: move with urgency and forge partnerships to enable the coordination this moment demands to deliver better outcomes for the communities U.S. grid operators serve.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Monroe said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a trend among casino operators to split into operating companies and property owners.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
To make matters worse, phone lines that should have allowed the emergency response team to communicate with the operators in the control rooms were down.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.