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What is the difference between microphone and mike?

microphone | mike | Synonyms |

Mike is a synonym of microphone.



As nouns the difference between microphone and mike

is that microphone is a device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or broadcast while mike is a microphone.

As verbs the difference between microphone and mike

is that microphone is to put one or more microphones on or in while mike is to microphone; to place one or more microphones (mikes) on.

As a proper noun Mike is

a diminutive of the male given name Michael.

microphone

English

(wikipedia microphone)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or broadcast.
  • * 1965 : Charles McDowell, Campaign Fever: The National Folk Festival, from New Hampshire to November, 1964 , page 11 (Morrow)
    • Behind the tangled garden of microphones that had sprouted on the lectern, Goldwater spoke softly and casually about his family.
  • * 1967 : Roderick MacLeish, The Sun Stood Still , page 41 (Atheneum)
    • Above them, speaking over a steel garden of microphones , the agitator sweated and scowled out into the darkening street.
  • * 2002 : Laura Lippman, In a Strange City , page 71 (HarperCollins; ISBN 0380810239, 9780380810239)
    • […] between the huge Depression-era horses on the plaza opposite City Hall — and Rainer was completely focused on them as they moved toward the podium and the little garden of microphones that had sprouted there. The Hilliards walked stiffly, as if they had been in a car accident.
  • * 2005 : Tom Stanton, Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America , page 177 (HarperCollins; ISBN 0060722908, 9780060722906)
    • Aaron perched himself on a wooden folding chair behind a garden of microphones and beamed as he answered questions. Sure, he was disappointed.
  • * 2006 : Tim Miller and Glen Johnson, 1001 Beds: Performances, Essays, and Travels , page 109] ([http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4283.htm University of Wisconsin Press; ISBN 9780299216900, 9780299216948)
    • Walking back down the marble stairs, which now felt more like I was leaving Principal Lambas’s office than the Forum in Rome, Holly, Karen, and I made our way to a garden of microphones for the press conference. I was dreading having to say something.
  • * 2009 : Caroline B. Cooney, If the Witness Lied , page 53 (Random House Children’s Books; ISBN 0385734484, 9780385734486)
    • […] garden of microphones , which stuck up like metal flowers in her face.

    Usage notes

    * The collective noun for several microphones (such as can be observed at a press conference) is (term).

    Synonyms

    * (transducer of sound waves to electricity) mic, mike

    Verb

    (microphon)
  • To put one or more on or in.

    • Synonyms

    * mike, mike up, bug (if covert), wire up

    Anagrams

    * ----

    mike

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (informal) A microphone.
  • * 1970, Theodore Sturgeon and Edward H. Waldo, "The Pod in the Barrier", in A Touch of Strange , Ayer Publishing, ISBN 0836935225, page 28,
    • "Then I say to the recording, for the record," I barked, right into the mike , "[…]"
  • * 1981, John Swaigen, How to Fight for What’s Right: The Guide to Public Interest Law , James Lorimer & Company, ISBN 0888624220, pages 118–119,
    • Obviously, one must watch what one says in the vicinity of a microphone. More than one person has made a “private” statement in the presence of an open mike .
  • * 2007, John Sellers, Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life , Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0743277082, page 85,
    • When the haggard bartender informed us that there would be an open-mike event later in the evening, I got my first sense that not everyone in Manchester cared about the music the city has produced.

    Synonyms

    * mic

    Verb

    (mik)
  • To microphone; to place one or more microphones () on.
  • * 1994 September, Jim Gaines, transcribed in Alan di Perna, "Step Lively: Recalling the recording process of SRV’s IN STEP with album producer Jim Gaines", in Guitar World Magazine'', reprinted in ''Guitar World Presents Stevie Ray Vaughan: Stevie Ray In His Own Words , Hal Leonard (1997), ISBN 0793580803, page 81,
    • “And sometimes I’d just have to mike the room. You could run into some weird phasing problems with the individual mics because the speakers were all reacting differently.”
  • * 1996, J.R. Robinson, quoted in Mark Huntly Parsons, The Drummer’s Studio Survival Guide: How to get the best possible drum tracks on any recording project , Hal Leonard, ISBN 0793572223, page 72,
    • He knows me, I know him, and I know how he’s going to mike the drums and what selection of mic’s he's going to use.
  • * 2006, Glenn Haertlein, Project Vectus , Lulu, ISBN 1-4116-8414-1, page 108,
    • “Zeb, is everything go on the AV equipment?” I heard Jim ask. ¶ “Yep,” Zeb replied. “I just need to mike him up.” […] “All set,” he said once he clipped the wireless microphone to my shirtfront.
  • To measure using a micrometer.
  • * 1983, Tom S. Wilson, How to Rebuild Your Big-block Chevy , HPBooks, ISBN 0895861755, page 98,
    • Measure Valve-Stem Diameter— To be positive about it you’ll have to mike the valve stem with a 1-in. micrometer as explained on pages 100 and 101.

    Synonyms

    * (to place a microphone on) mic

    Usage notes

    * This term is often found in the synonymous phrasal verb (mike up), as in the 2006 quotation above.

    Anagrams

    *