Definitions

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

  • noun An instrument used to detect the presence, sign, and in some configurations the magnitude of an electric charge by the mutual attraction or repulsion of metal foils or pith balls.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An instrument for observing or detecting the existence of free electricity, and, in general, for determining its kind.

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

  • noun (Physics) An instrument for detecting the presence of electricity, or changes in the electric state of bodies, or the species of electricity present, as by means of pith balls, and the like.
  • noun (Physics) a form of electroscope in which an increase of sensibility is obtained by the use of a condenser.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics a simple device that detects the presence of an electric charge by the mutual repulsion of metal foils or pith balls

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

  • noun measuring instrument that detects electric charge; two gold leaves diverge owing to repulsion of charges with like sign

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

electro- + -scope

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