comparator

noun

com·par·a·tor | \ kəm-ˈper-ə-tər,

-ˈpa-rə-\

Definition of comparator

: a device for comparing something with a similar thing or with a standard measure

Examples of comparator in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One room over, Wilson shows me the most impressive new toy in the group's digitization toolkit, one that arrived just three days earlier: A room-sized analog artifact known as an optical comparator. — Adam Fisher, WIRED, "A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora’s Box for DIY Guns," 10 July 2018 None of those vaccinated developed the disease after 10 days, even as 16 people in the unvaccinated comparator group did, according to a report in the Lancet. — Clifton Leaf, Fortune, "As an Ebola Outbreak Threatens to Spread Even Wider, A New Vaccine Gives Hope.," 19 May 2018 Traditionally, the safety and effectiveness of new cancer therapies is demonstrated through randomized clinical trials—studies in which patients are randomly assigned to receive either an experimental new treatment or a comparator therapy. — Amy Abernethy And, WSJ, "Clinical Drug Trials May Be Coming to Your Doctor’s Office," 12 Sep. 2017 Tombaugh made his discovery using a device called a blink comparator, which relies on a simple yet elegant technique: look at two pictures of a star field and compare them. — Jesse Emspak, Smithsonian, "Astronomy Needs You: To Help in the Hunt for Planet 9," 28 Aug. 2017 If one twin burned 80 calories compared with 100 burned by a comparator group during a workout, then the other twin would likely suffer the same metabolic shortcoming. — Sylvia Tara, Discover Magazine, "The Secret Life of Fat," 6 Feb. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'comparator.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near comparator

comparative religion

comparative statement

compare apples and/to/with apples

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Time Traveler for comparator

The first known use of comparator was in 1883

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More Definitions for comparator

comparator

noun

com·par·a·tor | \ kəm-ˈpar-ət-ər

Medical Definition of comparator

1 : an apparatus used for determining concentration of dissolved substances (as hydrogen ions) in solution by color comparison with known standards

2 : an instrument, device, or set of charts (as for use in chemical analysis and medical diagnosis) for the determination and specification of colors by direct comparison with a standardized system of colors