Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, producing, or operated by electricity.
- adjective Of or related to sound created or altered by an electrical or electronic device.
- adjective Amplified by an electronic device.
- adjective Emotionally exciting; thrilling.
- adjective Exceptionally tense; highly charged with emotion.
- noun An electrically powered machine or vehicle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- See
motor . - noun A railway or car operated by electricity: usually in the plural.
- Containing electricity, or capable of exhibiting it when excited by friction: as, an electric body, such as amber or glass.
- Pertaining to or consisting in electricity: as, electric power; an electric discharge.
- Derived from or produced by electricity: as, an electric shock; an electric light.
- Conveying electricity; producing electricity; communicating a shock by electricity: as, an electric machine; electric wires; the electric eel or fish.
- Operated by electricity: as, an electric bell; an electric railway.
- Figuratively, full of fire, spirit, or passion, and capable of communicating it to others; magnetic.
- noun A body or substance capable of exhibiting electricity by means of friction or otherwise, and of resisting the passage of it from one body to another. See
electricity .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Physics) A nonconductor of electricity, as amber, glass, resin, etc., employed to excite or accumulate electricity.
- adjective Pertaining to electricity; consisting of, containing, derived from, or produced by, electricity
- adjective Capable of occasioning the phenomena of electricity.
- adjective Electrifying; thrilling; magnetic.
- adjective powered by electricity.
- adjective See under
Aura . - adjective See
Battery . - adjective See under
Brush . - adjective See Telegraph cable, under
Telegraph . - adjective See under
Candle . - adjective (Zoöl.) one of three or more large species of African catfish of the genus Malapterurus (esp.
M. electricus of the Nile). They have a large electrical organ and are able to give powerful shocks; -- called alsosheathfish . - adjective See under
Clock , and seeElectro-chronograph . - adjective a current or stream of electricity traversing a closed circuit formed of conducting substances, or passing by means of conductors from one body to another which is in a different electrical state.
- adjective (Zoöl.) a South American eel-like fresh-water fish of the genus Gymnotus (
G. electricus ), from two to five feet in length, capable of giving a violent electric shock. SeeGymnotus . - adjective (Zoöl.) any fish which has an electrical organ by means of which it can give an electrical shock. The best known kinds are the
torpedo , thegymnotus , orelectrical eel , and theelectric cat . SeeTorpedo , andGymnotus . - adjective [archaic] the supposed matter of electricity; lightning.
- adjective (Elec.) a collection of electrical points regarded as forming, by an analogy with optical phenomena, an image of certain other electrical points, and used in the solution of electrical problems.
- adjective an apparatus for generating, collecting, or exciting, electricity, as by friction.
- adjective See
Electro-motor , 2. - adjective (Physics) See under
Osmose . - adjective a hand pen for making perforated stencils for multiplying writings. It has a puncturing needle driven at great speed by a very small magneto-electric engine on the penhandle.
- adjective a railway in which the machinery for moving the cars is driven by an electric current.
- adjective (Zoöl.) the torpedo.
- adjective See
Telegraph .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of, relating to, produced by, operated with, or utilising
electricity ;electrical . - adjective Of, or relating to an
electronic version of amusical instrument that has anacoustic equivalent. - adjective Being
emotionally thrilling ;electrifying . - adjective Drawing electricity from an external source; not battery-operated; corded.
- noun informal
Electricity . - noun rare An electric
car .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word electric.
Examples
-
However, with incomparably higher frequencies, which we may yet find means to produce efficiently, and provided that electric impulses of such high frequencies could be transmitted through a conductor, the electrical characteristics of the brush discharge would completely vanish -- no spark would pass, no shock would be felt -- yet we would still have to deal with an _electric_ phenomenon, but in the broad, modern interpretation of the word.
Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency Nikola Tesla 1899
-
The term electric radiation was first employed by Hertz to designate waves emitted by a Leyden jar or oscillator system of an induction coil, but since that time these radiations have been known as Hertzian waves.
Marvels of Modern Science Paul Severing
-
I had two thoughts when I first heard the phrase "electric sundown."
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Jason Hughes 2012
-
I had two thoughts when I first heard the phrase "electric sundown."
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Jason Hughes 2012
-
As Matouse said the Rapalla electric is a good knife for bulk work.
What is the best fillet knife to purchase? I have a couple but they need sharpened so often. 2009
-
As Matouse said the Rapalla electric is a good knife for bulk work.
What is the best fillet knife to purchase? I have a couple but they need sharpened so often. 2009
-
Some of us are not driving, some are trading in SUVs for hybrids, and some are looking in a completely different direction, towards what they call electric cars.
-
This is the dazzling bright light which we call electric light.
-
_ So, when the conductor is not so good; when a large wire is reduced suddenly to a small one; when a good conductor, such as copper, has a section of resisting conduction, such as carbon; heat and light are at once evolved at that point, and there is produced what we know as the electric light.
Steam, Steel and Electricity James W. Steele
-
That electromotive force acting on a dielectric produces what we call electric displacement.
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science Various 1909
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.