Simulator

How to spell simulator

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce simulator

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does simulator mean?

1. nounA device or program that reproduces real conditions for training, testing, or research.

Simulator in a sentence

• Trainee pilots log many hours in a flight simulator before flying a real aircraft.

• The driving school bought a new simulator so students could practise on busy roads safely.

Where does simulator come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb simulare, which meant 'to make something resemble' or 'to imitate', built on the adjective similis, meaning 'like' or 'similar'. The same similis root sits inside everyday English words such as 'similar', 'simile' and 'simultaneous', all carrying the idea of likeness. The agent suffix -or was added to name the device or person that does the imitating, giving us 'a thing that imitates'. English already had 'simulate' as a verb by the seventeenth century, and 'simulator' followed as the name for an apparatus that reproduces real conditions, becoming especially common in the twentieth century with flight training and computing. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle, where the -ul- can be misheard, and the ending -ator rather than -ater, which mirrors the Latin -ator agent pattern.

How the word is built

• simul- (from Latin simulare: to imitate, make like)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -or (agent, the thing that does it)