sonar
UK/ˈsəʊ.nɑː//ˈsoʊ.nɑːɹ/
sonar noun: artificial echolocation by use of electronic equipment, with hydrophones to locate objects underwater, using the same wave-analysis principles that radar uses.
Noun (1)
sonar (countable and uncountable, plural sonars)
- Artificial echolocation by use of electronic equipment, with hydrophones to locate objects underwater, using the same wave-analysis principles that radar uses.
- They were able to detect the sunken wreck using sonar.
- Synonyms:
- ASDIC
- A device that provides such echolocation.
- They finally bought a new sonar to replace the 40-year-old unit that sometimes didn't work right.
- Any echolocation.
- Submarines and bats both use sonar to navigate.
Noun (2) capitalized: SONAR
SONAR (countable and uncountable, plural SONARs)
- Dated form of sonar.
sonar meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
sonar in Hindi
- सोनार
sonar in Tamil
- சோனார், சோனர்
sonar in Urdu
- سونر
sonar in Telugu
- సోనార్, సొనార్, సోనర్
More languagesFewer languages
- sonar in Malayalam
- സോനാർ, സോണാർ, സൊനാർ
- sonar in Kannada
- ಸೋನಾರ್, ಸೊನಾರ್
- sonar in Punjabi
- ਸੋਨਾਰ
- sonar in Gujarati
- સોનાર
- sonar in Odia
- ସୋନାର୍
- sonar in Tagalog
- sonar
- sonar in Arabic
- سُونار sūnār
- sonar in Indonesian
- sonar, pemair suara
- sonar in Thai
- โซนาร์ soo-nâa
Examples of sonar in a sentence
- Thanks to its sonar, the narwhal can remain active even at midnight, unhindered by the darkness.
- We couldn't take the boat into the shallows near the reef because our sonar pinger was broken.
- The detected submarine was tracked by sonar, it was easy once they knew where to look.
Synonyms of sonar
Forms of sonar
| plural | sonars |
|---|---|
| alternative form | SONAR |
| plural | SONARs |
Origin of sonar
By anacronymic evolution from SONAR.
Acronym of sound navigation and ranging. Coined by American scientist Frederick Vinton Hunt in the 1940s, roughly contemporaneously with radar. The lowercase form (sonar) is by anacronymic evolution.
Words formed from sonar
Questions about sonar
- What does sonar mean?
- Sonar means artificial echolocation by use of electronic equipment, with hydrophones to locate objects underwater, using the same wave-analysis principles that radar uses.
- What is sonar in Hindi?
- Sonar in Hindi is सोनार. See Sonar meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sonar?
- Sonar is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sonar?
- Sonar is pronounced /ˈsoʊ.nɑːɹ/ (US).
- What is the plural of sonar?
- The plural of sonar is sonars.
Words near sonar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sonar (page history and authors); SONAR (page history and authors); sonar (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sonar (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-sonar.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sonar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sonar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.