swipe card

noun

plural swipe cards

: a plastic card with a magnetic strip that has encoded information which can be read when the card is slid through an electronic card-reading device

… announced proposals to introduce electronic swipe cards for regular, pre-screened travelers that would allow them to bypass lengthy passport lines.

—Harvey Morris

… specialists were able to trace the messages to a remote location on campus and match their posting times to those when a certain student used his campus swipe card to get in and out of the same building.

—Barrett Seaman

Examples of swipe card in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Shopify lets merchants swipe cards, stash proceeds in Shopify Balance, borrow against their receivables and, if Ottawa eventually blesses it, park deposits outright. —Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025

Using an electronic swipe card reader, Ashbrook scanned 130 of the access device cards and found none of them contained information matching that which was on the card. —Jim Woods, Chicago Tribune, 13 May 2025

All campus buildings require swipe card access on Saturdays and Sundays. —Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press, 27 Feb. 2023

All of Next Level’s pinball and arcade games are set to free play, so no coins or swipe cards are needed. —Sswindler, oregonlive, 26 Mar. 2023

All buildings are locked outside of business hours with access limited to swipe card access. —Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press, 27 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for swipe card

• bodyguard
• boulevard
• disregard
• asgard
• backyard
• barnyard
• blackguard
• bombard
• brickyard
• canard
• churchyard
• coastguard