# controller

Pronunciation: US say "kuhn-TROH-ler" /kənˈtɹoʊlɚ/; UK say "kuhn-TROH-luh" /kənˈtɹəʊlə/

## Noun

1. A hardware device, typically held in the hands, that is designed for playing video games.
   - Simple: A device you hold in your hands to play video games.
   - _The console comes with one wireless controller, so you'll need to buy another for two-player games._
   - _After years of heavy use, the buttons on his old controller had started to stick._
2. A person who controls something or has control over it.
   - Simple: A person who is in charge of something and controls it.
   - _Critics saw the general as the real controller of the government, whatever the president's title._
   - _Regulators feared that a single owner would become the controller of most of the country's newspapers._
3. The chief accounting officer of a company or government, who audits and manages its financial affairs; also called a comptroller.
   - Simple: The top person who checks and manages the money of a company or government.
   - _As corporate controller, she signs off on every quarterly financial statement._
   - _The city controller released an audit showing that the transit agency had overspent by millions._
4. An electric or mechanical device used to control a circuit or a system.
   - Simple: A device that controls an electric circuit or a system, using electricity or moving parts.
   - _The motorman eased the controller back to slow the streetcar on the hill._
   - _A faulty motor controller stopped the conveyor belt without warning._
5. A mechanism that controls or regulates the operation of a machine, especially of a computer's peripheral devices.
   - Simple: A part that runs and controls a machine, especially a device connected to a computer.
   - _The technician replaced the disk controller, and the server could read its drives again._
   - _The motherboard has a built-in USB controller that manages every device plugged into its ports._
6. The person who supervises an agent in the field and handles communication with that agent.
   - Simple: The person who directs a spy on a mission and passes messages to and from them.
   - _After the meeting, the agent sent a coded report to his controller in Vienna._
   - _The defector claimed that his Moscow controller had ordered him to recruit a second source._
7. In software built on the model-view-controller design pattern, the part or parts that handle input and output, acting as the interface between models and views.
   - Simple: In some computer programs, the part that handles input and output and connects the program's data to what the user sees.
   - _Each incoming request is routed to a controller, which updates the model and picks a view to render._
   - _Keep business logic out of your controllers so they stay thin and easy to test._
8. An iron block bolted to a ship's deck that catches the links of a chain cable as it runs out and holds them until released.
   - Simple: An iron block fixed to a ship's deck that grips a chain and controls it as it runs out.
   - _As the anchor went down, the chain rattled across the deck until the controller caught its links and held them._
   - _The crew knocked the chain free of the controller so the cable could run out again._
9. In grammar, the subject of a control verb, which determines who is understood as the subject of the verb's complement clause.
   - Simple: In grammar, the subject of a control verb, which also tells you who does the action of the verb after it.
   - _In "Maria promised to call," the controller is Maria, the subject of promised, so Maria is understood as the caller._
   - _The controller here is the subject of the main clause, so the infinitive needs no subject of its own._

## Origin

From Middle English countreroller, from Anglo-Norman contreroulour and Middle French contreroleur (modern French contrôleur), from Medieval Latin contrārotulātor, from a reconstructed *contrārotulāre, which is also the source of control. It is a doublet of comptroller, and can also be read as control + -er.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/controller (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).