swipe card
swipe card — noun
1. a rectangular piece of plastic that you pull through a machine's slot to unlock
a rectangular piece of plastic that you pull through a machine's slot to unlock a door, enter a building, or pay for something
Mira forgot her swipe card and could not get into the lab.
Cole used his swipe card to pay for the coffee and a sandwich.
collocation: use a swipe card to pay
The security guard asked Minh to show his swipe card before entering the building.
Every employee receives a swipe card for the main office entrance.
Kemi's swipe card stopped working, so she asked the manager for a new one.
- access card
more specific — usually for entering a building only, not for payments
- key card
typically thinner and used for hotel rooms
- smart card
contains a microchip instead of a magnetic strip
2. a thin rectangle of plastic whose dark magnetic stripe stores digital informatio
a thin rectangle of plastic whose dark magnetic stripe stores digital information that an electronic reader pulls from the card as it passes through a slot
The magnetic strip on Andrés's swipe card became scratched and unreadable.
collocation: magnetic strip + scratched / unreadable
Older swipe cards store account numbers on a black magnetic strip.
collocation: store data on a magnetic strip
Felix wiped the magnetic strip of his swipe card with a soft cloth.
Banks are replacing swipe cards with chip-based cards for better security.
The hotel key system still uses swipe cards with encoded magnetic strips.
- magnetic stripe card
more technical term used by manufacturers
- magstripe card
informal abbreviation common in the IT industry
- stripe card
shorter informal variant
- chip card
uses an embedded microchip rather than a magnetic strip
用法筆記
This sense describes the physical construction of the card. Distinguish from sense 1 (ACCESS / PAYMENT), which focuses on what the card is used for rather than how it stores data.