Meanings
nountape drive (plural tape drives)
plural tape drives
- historicalcomputingA cassette drive.
- historicalcomputingA reel-to-reel tape machine for computers.
Required: FORTRAN, line printer, enough storage for approx 375K Bytes -- tape drives preferred for confidentiality.
1979 April 14, “Reliable Computer (classified advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, page 14 - computingA cartridge-based interface for computers that reads from and/or writes to a tape.
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna mechanism that transports magnetic tape across the read/write heads of a tape playback/recorder
Similar
Broader
Also see
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Danish båndstation, båndstation
- båndstationcomputing: cassette drive
- båndstationcomputing: reel-to-reel tape machine
Finnish nauha-asema, kasettiasema
- nauha-asemacomputing: cassette drive
- kasettiasemacomputing: cassette drive
- nauha-asemacomputing: reel-to-reel tape machine
- nauha-asemacomputing: tape cartridge interface
- nauhankuljetindrive mechanism
Polish napęd taśmowy, napęd taśmowy
- napęd taśmowycomputing: cassette drive
- napęd taśmowycomputing: reel-to-reel tape machine
- napęd taśmowycomputing: tape cartridge interface
- napęd taśmowydrive mechanism
Cite this entry
APA
tape drive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tape%20drive
MLA
“tape drive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tape%20drive. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tape drive,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tape%20drive.
Source: tape drive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.