electric

English

Alternative forms

• electrick (chiefly archaic)

Etymology

From New Latin ēlectricus (“of amber”), from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron, “amber”), related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektor, “shining sun”).

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, 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”, 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

electrical electrical outlet electrical engineer

electric chair electric darts electric eye

electric fence electric grid (AKA a power grid) electric shock

Translations

electrical

• Arabic: كهربائي (kahrabaa'iy)
• Armenian: էլեկտրական (ēlektrakan)
• Bulgarian: електрически (elektríčeski)
• Catalan: elèctric
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: elektrický (cs) m
• Esperanto: elektra
• Finnish: sähköinen, sähkö-
• French: électrique (fr)
• Galician: eléctrico
• 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)
• Jèrriais: êlectrique
• Latin: electricus
• Lithuanian: elektrinis
• Lojban: dikca
• Malay: elektrik
• Persian: برقي (fa) (barghi)
• Polish: elektryczny (pl)
• Portuguese: elétrico (pt)
• Romanian: electric (ro)
• Russian: электрический (ru) (elektríčeskij), электро- (ru) (elektro-)
• Spanish: eléctrico (es)
• Swedish: elektrisk (sv)
• Turkish: elektrikli (tr)

electronic (musical instrument)

• Armenian: էլեկտրական (ēlektrakan)
• French: électrique (fr)
• Galician: eléctrico 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)
• 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

• Japanese: シビレる (shibire-ru) (informal)
• 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 Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Breton: tredanek, tredanel
• Indonesian: listrik
• Interlingua: electric

Noun

electric (usually uncountable, plural electrics)

1. (informal) Electricity.
2. (rare) 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

• German: Elektro-Auto
• Japanese: 電気自動車 (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

Adjective

electric ^{mn nom/acc forms}

1. electric

Related terms

• electrician
• electricitate
• electrificare
• electrificat
• electriza
• electrizare
• electrizant
• electrizat