Modulators

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Devices that regulate or adjust signals to achieve desired effects in communication systems
2. Components that manipulate parameters to control the behavior of oscillators or signals in various electronic applications
3. Instruments that modify input signals to produce specific output characteristics in the fields of telecommunications and audio processing

Etymology: The word "modulator" is built from "modulate" plus the English agent suffix "-or", which attaches to a verb to name the thing or person that performs its action. "Modulate" in turn comes from Latin "modulari", meaning to measure, regulate or sing in measured tones, and it descends from "modulus", a small measure or standard, itself a diminutive of "modus", meaning measure, manner or limit. The sense of tuning a sound or rhythm to a pleasing pattern is the root of the whole family. The Latin verb reached English through the "-ate" verb pattern, which gives "modulate" its form, and the modern electronic sense of adjusting a signal's amplitude, frequency or phase grew naturally out of the older idea of regulating a tone. A "modulator" in that sense is a device that imposes a pattern on a carrier wave, so the word carries the original notion of measured variation into radio, telephony and digital communication.

Synonyms: regulators, controllers, adjusters, modifiers, adaptors