magnetic tape

noun

: a thin ribbon (as of plastic) coated with a magnetic material on which information (such as sound or television images) may be stored

Examples of magnetic tape in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Also, magnetic tape is manufactured in Japan as are many of the optical discs. —Thomas Coughlin, Forbes.com, 17 Apr. 2025

Instead of punch cards, the computer used magnetic tape to input data. —IEEE Spectrum, 13 Sep. 2024

In addition to HDDs and SSDs, magnetic tape also serves an important role in larger enterprise backup and archiving applications. —Thomas Coughlin, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025

Companies that wish to store huge amounts of data do have other options, but hard drives are still the go-to choice for enterprise storage needs that fall somewhere between faster, more expensive solid-state drives built on flash memory, and slower, cheaper magnetic tape. —IEEE Spectrum, 5 Jan. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for magnetic tape

• audiotape
• videotape
• agape
• escape
• landscape
• lenape
• reshape
• seascape
• soundscape
• ape
• cape
• crape

Kids Definition

magnetic tape

noun

: a thin ribbon (as of plastic) coated with a magnetic material on which information (as sound or television images) may be stored