Word.ws English Dictionary

lidar

/ˈlaɪdɑː/US/ˈlaɪdɑɹ/

lidar noun: the optical analogue of radar, using intense pulses of laser light to measure the composition and structure of the atmosphere.

lidar: the optical analogue of radar, using intense pulses of laser light to measure the composition and...
Image: David Monniaux, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

lidar (countable and uncountable, plural lidars)

  1. (uncountable, usually) The optical analogue of radar, using intense pulses of laser light to measure the composition and structure of the atmosphere.
    • Tesla bet on the idea that in the design of self-driving cars, lidar doesn't add enough capability, beyond what the cameras already provide, to be worth the additional cost.
    • Although operational environments profoundly differ, both kinds of autonomous vehicles, groundcraft and aircraft, will still rely on conceptually the same sorts of sensors — cameras, radar and lidar — to perceive surroundings in real time.2020 January 1, Adam Hadhazy, “Achieving autonomy”, in Aerospace America, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2025
  2. (countable) A device that provides such imaging.
    • There's a lidar mounted on the roof of that Waymo.

Noun (2) capitalized: LIDAR

LIDAR (plural LIDARs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of light detection and ranging.

Noun (3) capitalized: LiDAR

LiDAR (plural LiDARs)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of LIDAR.

Forms of lidar

plurallidars
pluralLIDARs
pluralLiDARs

Plural of lidar: lidars

Origin of lidar

By anacronymic evolution from LIDAR.

Acronym of light detection and ranging. Synchronically also analyzable as blend of light + radar. The lowercase form (lidar) is by anacronymic evolution.

Words formed from lidar

Words that rhyme with lidar

Questions about lidar

What does lidar mean?
Lidar means the optical analogue of radar, using intense pulses of laser light to measure the composition and structure of the atmosphere.
What part of speech is lidar?
Lidar is a noun.
How do you pronounce lidar?
Lidar is pronounced /ˈlaɪdɑɹ/ (US).
What is the plural of lidar?
The plural of lidar is lidars.

Words near lidar in the dictionary

  1. lid-lifters
  2. Lida
  3. lidamidine
  4. lidamycin
  5. lidanserin
  6. lidar
  7. lidars
  8. Lidcombe
  9. liddat
  10. Liddaton
  11. lidded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lidar (page history and authors); LIDAR (page history and authors); LiDAR (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:

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

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