driver

/ˈdɹaɪ.və//ˈdɹaɪvɚ/

driver noun: one who drives something.

Noun

driver (plural drivers)

One who drives something.
- Luke North was working in the North East District when Harry Patterson the pony driver came by. It was 5.45 o'clock. Luke smelt danger in the air. He walked round the pony to speak with Harry […]2016, John Swain, Digging Up The Pitmen, page 164
1. A person who drives a motorized vehicle such as a car, truck, bus, train, forklift, etc.
  - The driver will make an announcement when the trip is nearing its completion.
  - Tipping your driver is optional but is much appreciated.
2. (slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).
3. A person who drives livestock: a drover.
  - Up until 1872 there was not over 150 miles of railroad in the state [Texas], that was from Galveston to Houston, and a short line from Houston to Brazoria, twenty-five miles in length, and one road from Harrisburg to Alton, three miles east of Columbus. So the cattle driving to Kansas was the only...1920, W.F. Cude, “Trail driving to Kansas and elsewhere”, in J. Marvin Hunter, editor, The Trail Drivers of Texas: Interesting Sketches of Early Cowboys and Their Experiences on the Range and on the...
Something that drives something else.
- The character of work is a driver of social change, at the same time that any new forms of work are the result of broader social change.2014, Bridgette Wessels, Exploring Social Change: Process and Context, page 106
- The aim is to secure up to £140 million for the combined road and rail improvements, including a new road bridge to replace a level crossing at Totton. A key driver has been the approval of a new housing and employment development called Fawley Waterside, with 1,500 homes planned on the site of a...2020 December 16, “Network News: "Robust case" for Fawley branch reopening”, in Rail, page 14
1. A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.
2. A golf club used to drive the ball a great distance.
  - The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […]1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major
3. A kind of sail, smaller than a fore and aft spanker on a square-rigged ship, a driver is tied to the same spars.
4. A factor contributing to something; a cause.
  - Compared with June 2023, consumers’ perceptions of the main drivers of inflation shifted towards wages, although other input costs were still seen as the strongest driver overall.2024, Pedro Baptista, Colm Bates, Omiros Kouvavas, Pedro Neves, Katia Werkmeister, “What consumers think is the main driver of recent inflation: changes in perceptions over time”, in European Central...
5. Any driving element in any mechanism, which drives the driven element.
  - The driver engages the follower intermittently, as dictated by the solenoid.
6. A mallet.
7. A tamping iron.
8. A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops.
9. A screwdriver, a nutdriver, or a bit for such a tool; such bits include nutsetters.
  - Among the driver and screw types available, you'll find several cross-slot varieties including the Reed & Prince […]1996, Popular Mechanics, volume 173, number 12
10. A device that converts an electrical signal to sound waves; the principal component of loudspeakers and headphones.
11. (in plural) A driving wheel of a locomotive.
  - The later iterations of these locomotives had 56-inch drivers.
  - With a toot on her chime whistle, No. 6 set her 3 ft. 9 in. drivers turning and we were off round the curve through Pennyburn works.1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 353

Proper noun capitalized: Driver

Driver

A surname.
- Blank's former girlfriend Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver), whom he jilted in high school, now works as a radio DJ.2005, Maria Pramaggiore, Tom Wallis, Film: A Critical Introduction, page 210
An unincorporated community in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States.
A neighbourhood in the city of Suffolk, Virginia, United States.
An inner suburb of Palmerston, Northern Territory, Australia.

driver meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

driver in Hindi

one who drives something, e.g. cattle: चालक cālak
something that drives something: चालक cālak
person who drives some other vehicle: चालक cālak, ड्राइवर ḍrāivar
person who drives a motorized vehicle, such as a car or a bus: चालक cālak, ड्राइवर ḍrāivar

driver in Marathi

person who drives some other vehicle: चालक cālak, चालिका cālikā
person who drives a motorized vehicle, such as a car or a bus: चालक cālak, चालिका cālikā
program acting as interface between an application and hardware: ड्रायव्हर ḍrāyavhar

driver in Urdu

person who drives some other vehicle: ڈْرائِیوَر ḍrāīvar, ڈْرائِوَر ḍrāivar
person who drives a motorized vehicle, such as a car or a bus: ڈْرائِیوَر ḍrāīvar, ڈْرائِوَر ḍrāivar
program acting as interface between an application and hardware: ڈْرائِیوَر ḍrāīvar, ڈْرائِوَر ḍrāivar

More languagesFewer languages

driver in Bengali: চালক calok, ড্রাইভার ḍraibhar
driver in Telugu: సారథి sārathi, డ్రైవర్ ḍraivar, చోదకుడు cōdakuḍu
driver in Malayalam: ഡ്രൈവർ ḍraivaṟ
driver in Kannada: ಓಡಿಸುಗ, ನಡೆಸುಗ, ಬಂಡಿಕಾರ, ತಿರುಪು
driver in Punjabi: ډرېور
driver in Odia: ଗାଡ଼ିବାଲା gāṛibālā
driver in Sanskrit: यन्तृ yantṛ, यम yáma, अज ajá
driver in Pashto: ډرايور ḍrāywar, ډرېور ḍrewar, موټروان moṭarwān
driver in Tagalog: drayber
driver in Arabic: سَائِق sāʔiq, سَوَّاق sawwāq
driver in Malay: pemandu, drebar, pemacu
driver in Indonesian: sopir
driver in Thai: คนขับ kon-kàp, ผู้ขับ pûu-kàp, คนขับรถ
driver in Vietnamese: người lái, tài xế
driver in Myanmar: ယာဉ်မောင်း yanymaung:

Examples of driver in a sentence

If more drivers knew how to zipper, the accident would not have disrupted traffic so much.
Two drivers have already gone into the pit this early in the race.
Speed limits provide information to the drivers about the safe speed to travel in average conditions.

All 40 example sentences with driver

Antonyms of driver

follower

Forms of driver

plural	drivers

Plural of driver: drivers

Origin of driver

From Middle English drivere, dryvere, dryvare, equivalent to drive + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Drieuwer (“driver”), Dutch drijver (“driver”), German Low German Driever (“driver”), German Treiber (“driver”), Swedish drivare (“driver”).

Words formed from driver

Phrases with driver

12 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with driver

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about driver

What does driver mean?: Driver means one who drives something.
What is driver in Hindi?: Driver in Hindi is चालक (cālak), ड्राइवर (ḍrāivar). See Driver meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is driver?: Driver can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce driver?: Driver is pronounced /ˈdɹaɪ.və/ (UK).
What is the plural of driver?: The plural of driver is drivers.

Words near driver in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: driver (page history and authors); Driver (page history and authors); ஓட்டுநர் (Tamil) (page history and authors); ഡ്രൈവർ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); driver (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଗାଡ଼ିବାଲା (Odia) (page history and authors); अज (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-driver.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-driver.wav.

Cite this entry: “driver.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/driver. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.