Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The word terminator is from Latin and means roughly the finisher. In astronomy, the terminator is the line between the day side and the night side of a planetary body. Examination of the terminator can yield information about the surface of the body; for example, a fuzzy terminator indicates the presence of an atmosphere. On Earth, sunrise and sunset are the result of passing through the terminator each day. In genetics, a terminator marks the end of a gene on the DNA for transcription. The Terminator is an American motion picture involving a cyborg that has been sent back through time to "terminate" or kill a woman whose life will have importance in the future. In electronics, a resistor at the end of a transmission line or daisy chain bus (such as in SCSI), designed to match impedance and hence minimize reflections of the signal. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.