electric

See also: elèctric

English

Alternative forms

• electrick (chiefly archaic)

Etymology

From New Latin ēlectricus (“electrical; of amber”), from ēlectrum (“amber”) +‎ -icus (“adjectival suffix”), from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, “amber”), related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēléktōr, “shining sun”). The Latin term was apparently used first with the sense “electrical” in 1600 by the English physician and scientist, William Gilbert in his work De Magnete.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɛktɹɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

electric (not comparable)

1. Of, relating to, produced by, operated with, or utilising electricity; electrical.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion^[1]:

     But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

   • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

2. Of or relating to an electronic version of a musical instrument that has an acoustic equivalent.
3. Being emotionally thrilling; electrifying.
   • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

     Electric Pindar.

4. Drawing electricity from an external source; not battery-operated; corded.

   Is that a rechargeable vacuum? No, it's electric.

Derived terms

Terms derived from electric

• acoustic-electric
• electrical
• electrical outlet
• electrical engineer

• electric bass
• electric blues
• electric car
• electric cello
• electric chair
• electric darts
• electric dulcimer
• electric eye

• electric fence
• electric flux
• electric grid (power grid)
• electric guitar
• electric harp
• electric sitar
• electric shock
• electric violin

Translations

electrical

• Arabic: كَهْرَبَائِيّ‏‎ (kahrabāʾiyy)
• Armenian: էլեկտրական (hy) (ēlektrakan)
• Bulgarian: електрически (elektríčeski)
• Catalan: elèctric
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 電動 (zh), 电动 (zh) (diàndòng), 電氣 (zh), 电气 (zh) (diànqì)

• Czech: elektrický (cs) m
• Esperanto: elektra
• Finnish: sähköinen (fi), sähkö-
• French: électrique (fr)
• Galician: eléctrico (gl)
• German: elektrisch (de)
• Greek: ηλεκτρικός (el) (ilektrikós)
• Hebrew: חשמלי‏‎ (khashmalí)
• Irish: leictreach
• Italian: elettrico (it)
• Japanese: 電動の (でんどうの, dendō-no), 電気的な (でんきてきな, denkiteki-na), エレクトリック (erektrikku)
• Latin: electricus
• Lithuanian: elektrinis

• Lojban: dikca
• Malay: elektrik
• Maori: hiko
• Norman: êlectrique
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: elektrisk

  Nynorsk: elektrisk

• Persian: برقي‏‎ (fa) (barghi)
• Polish: elektryczny (pl)
• Portuguese: elétrico (pt)
• Romanian: electric (ro)
• Russian: электри́ческий (ru) (elektríčeskij), электро- (ru) (elektro-)
• Spanish: eléctrico (es)
• Swedish: elektrisk (sv)
• Tagalog: dagitbin
• Thai: ไฟฟ้า (th) (fai-fáa)
• Turkish: elektrikli (tr)
• Yiddish: עלעקטריש‏‎ (elektrish)

electronic (musical instrument)

• Armenian: էլեկտրական (hy) (ēlektrakan)
• French: électrique (fr)
• Galician: eléctrico (gl) m, eléctrica f
• German: elektronisch (de), elektrisch (de)
• Greek: ηλεκτρικός (el) m (ilektrikós)
• Hungarian: elektromos (hu)
• Italian: elettronico (it) m

• Japanese: 電気的な (denkiteki-na)
• Lithuanian: elektroninis (lt)
• Portuguese: elétrico (pt)
• Romanian: electric (ro) m, electronic (ro) m
• Spanish: eléctrico (es) (guitars), electrónico (es) (other than guitars)
• Swedish: elektrisk (sv), el-
• Turkish: elektrikli (tr), elektrik (tr), elektro-

emotionally thrilling

• Bulgarian: наелектризиращ (bg) (naelektrizirašt)
• Galician: electrizante (gl)
• German: elektrisierend (de)
• Japanese: シビレる (shibire-ru) (informal)

• Persian: پرهیجان‏‎ (fa) (por-hayajân)
• Portuguese: eletrizante
• Spanish: electrizante (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Breton: ^{(please verify)} tredanek, ^{(please verify)} tredanel
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} listrik

• Interlingua: electric

Noun

electric (usually uncountable, plural electrics)

1. (informal, uncountable) Electricity.
2. (rare, countable) An electric car.
3. (archaic) A substance or object which can be electrified; an insulator or non-conductor, like amber or glass.

Translations

electric car

• French: voiture électrique f
• German: Elektro-Auto
• Japanese: 電気自動車 (ja) (denki-jidōsha)
• Lojban: dicma'e

• Persian: ماشين برقي‏‎ (mashine barghi)
• Romanian: automobil electric n
• Spanish: coche eléctrico m
• Swedish: elbil (sv)

References

• “electric” in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• electric in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Dictionary.com definitions of electric
• Niels H. de V. Heathcote (December 1967). "The early meaning of electricity: Some Pseudodoxia Epidemica - I". Annals of Science 23 (4): pp. 261-275.

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowing from French électrique.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eˈlek.trik/

Adjective

electric m, n (feminine singular electrică, masculine plural electrici, feminine and neuter plural electrice)

1. electric

Declension

declension of electric

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	electric		electrică	electrici	electrice
	definite	electricul		electrica	electricii	electricele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	electric		electrice	electrici	electrice
	definite	electricului		electricei	electricilor	electricelor

Related terms

Related terms

• electrician
• electricitate
• electrificare

• electrificat
• electriza
• electrizant

• electrizare
• electrizat