rheostat

See also: rhéostat

English

Charles Wheatstone's 1843 rheostat with a metal and a wooden cylinder (sense 1)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ser-?

Proto-Indo-European *srew-

Proto-Indo-European *sréweti

Proto-Hellenic *hréwō

Ancient Greek ῥέω (rhéō)

English rheo-

English -stat

English rheostat

From rheo- + -stat.

Pronunciation

• enPR: rē′ə-stăt, rē′ō-stăt
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): (contemporary) /ˈɹiː.ə.stat/, (conservative) /-stæt/; /-əʊ̯-/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɹi.ə.stæt/, /-oʊ̯-/

  Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiː.ə.stæt/, /-əʉ̯-/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiː.ə.stɛt/, /-ɐʉ̯-/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈɹi.ə.stat/, /-o-/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈɾiː.o.sʈaʈ/, /-oː-/
• Rhymes: -ɹiːəstat, -ɹiːəʊstat
• Hyphenation: rhe‧o‧stat

Noun

rheostat (plural rheostats)

2. (electronics, technology) An electrical resistor, with two terminals, whose resistance is continuously variable by moving a knob or slider.

   Hyponyms: (when applied to lights) dimmer, dimmer switch

Derived terms

• rheostatic

Translations

resistor with adjustable resistance

• Bulgarian: реоста́т m (reostát)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 變阻器 / 变阻器 (zh) (biànzǔqì)

• Czech: reostat m, potenciometr m
• Dutch: regelweerstand, reostaat (nl)
• Finnish: reostaatti
• French: rhéostat (fr) m, potentiomètre (fr) m
• German: Rheostat (de) m, Widerstand (de) m
• Italian: reostato (it) m, potenziometro (it) m
• Polish: reostat (pl) m inan
• Romanian: reostat (ro) n
• Russian: реоста́т (ru) m (reostát)
• Spanish: reostato (es) m, reóstato (es) m
• Vietnamese: biến trở (vi)

See also

• potentiometer

Further reading

• “rheostat”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• throates, hot tears, Asteroth, thorates