master clock
Noun
Meaning
master clock (plural master clocks)
A precision clock that provides timing signals to synchronise slave clocks as part of a clock network.
Antonyms
Examples
Clocks are, with varying degrees of accuracy, phase-locked (time-locked) to a master clock.
Slave clock synchronization is usually achieved by phase -locking the slave clock signal to a signal received from the master clock.
The human body has a master clock in the SCN and also peripheral oscillators in tissues.
The master clock (bottom center), controlled by a temperature-compensated mercury pendulum, is wired to slave clocks throughout the building.
The other standard time and frequency reference for the U.S. Government is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) master clock.
There may be a master clock able to communicate with all parts of the embryo that controls the course of events, or timing may depend simply on local causal sequences of events.