Neural operator – Definition & Meaning

Definition of neural operator

: a neural-network model that learns a mapping from one function or field to another, often so that a physical system can be predicted across different grids, resolutions, or parameter settings
- The climate surrogate used a neural operator to map an initial temperature field to its future state.
- Researchers trained a neural operator to approximate repeated solutions of a family of fluid equations.

Origin & history

first known use2020

Modern neural-operator research took shape around 2020 in work that generalized neural networks from mappings between finite-dimensional vectors to mappings between function spaces. The Fourier neural operator, published at ICLR 2021, became an influential architecture for learning families of partial differential equation solutions.

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"Neural operator." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/neural-operator/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

Definition of neural operator

Origin & history

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