audiometer

noun

au·​di·​om·​e·​ter ˌȯ-dē-ˈä-mə-tər 

: an instrument used in measuring the acuity of hearing

audiometric

ˌȯ-dē-ō-ˈme-trik 

adjective

audiometry

ˌȯ-dē-ˈä-mə-trē 

noun

Examples of audiometer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 1987 Nielsen launched their own People Meter sample of 2,000 households replacing their audiometer/diary methodology. —Brad Adgate, Forbes, 1 Sep. 2021

Word History

Etymology

Latin audī-, stem of audīre "to hear" + -o- + -meter — more at audible entry 1

Note: The word audiometer was used for a device developed by the British inventor David Edward Hughes (1831-1900), described by him in "On an Inductions-Current Balance, and Experimental Researches made therewith," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, no. 196, May 15, 1879, vol. 29, pp. 56-65. Though the word is used by Hughes (p. 58), it was coined by the British physician Benjamin Ward Richardson (1828-96), who concludes a report following Hughes' article in the same journal ("Some Researches with Professor Hughes' New Instrument for the Measurement of Hearing; the Audiometer," pp. 65-70) with the following: "… the world of science … is under a deep debt of gratitude to Professor Hughes for his simple and beautiful instrument, which I have christened the audimeter, or less correctly but more euphoniously, the audiometer." Presumably Richardson felt that -i- was a more Latinate linking vowel than -o- following a Latin element, though the precedents in classical Latin for 4th-conjugation verbs in compounds are limited (but cf. the derivatives fulcīmen, fulcīmentum "prop, support" from fulcīre "to support" and the hapax in Petronius fulcipedia—with -ī-?—"one supported by a foot"). But -o- as a universal linking element in Greco-Latin compounds was most likely becoming general usage in the 19th century.

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

audiometer

noun

au·​di·​om·​e·​ter ˌȯd-ē-ˈäm-ət-ər 

: an instrument used to measure the keenness of hearing

audiometric

ˌȯd-ē-ō-ˈme-trik 

adjective

audiometry

ˌȯd-ē-ˈäm-ə-trē 

noun

Medical Definition

audiometer

noun

au·​di·​om·​e·​ter ˌȯd-ē-ˈäm-ət-ər 

: an instrument used in measuring the acuity of hearing

called also acoumeter