magnetic head

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An electromagnet, such as one used in a tape recorder, that converts electrical impulses into variations in the magnetism of a surface for storage and subsequent retrieval.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Electronics) An electromagnet (as on a tape recorder) that converts electrical variations into magnetic variations that can be stored on a magnetizable surface and later retrieved.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an electromagnet (as on a tape recorder) that converts electrical variations into magnetic variations that can be stored on a surface and later retrieved