Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Generator

Generator , noun

[Latin]

1.
One who, or that which, generates, begets, causes, or produces.
2.
An apparatus in which vapor or gas is formed from a liquid or solid by means of heat or chemical process, as a steam boiler, gas retort, or vessel for generating carbonic acid gas, etc.
3.
(Music) The principal sound or sounds by which others are produced; the fundamental note or root of the common chord; -- called also generating tone.
4.
(Electricity) Any machine that transforms mechanical into electrical energy; a dynamo.
5.
(Mathematics) a mathematical entity which, when subjected to an operation, yields another mathematical entity; also, a generatrix.