Noun

Singular electricity

Plural usually uncountable; plural electricities

electricity (usually uncountable; plural electricities)

1. A form of energy, caused by the behavior of electrons and protons, properly called "electrical energy".
   • 2000, James Meek, Home-made answer to generating electricity harks back to the past, The Guardian

     Householders could one day be producing as much electricity as all the country's nuclear power stations combined, thanks to the revolutionary application of a device developed in the early 19th century.

2. A fundamental attractive property of matter, appearing in negative and positive kinds.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1st edition, p. 51 (First known English usage)

     Again, The concretion of Ice will not endure a dry attrition without liquation; for if it be rubbed long with a cloth, it melteth. But Crystal will calefie unto electricity; that is, a power to attract strawes and light bodies, and convert the needle freely placed.

3. The flow of charge carriers within a conductor, properly called "electric current".
4. The charge carriers within a conductor, properly called "electric charge".
   • 1873, James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

     We may express all these results in a concise and consistent manner by describing an electrified body as charged with a certain quantity of electricity, which we may denote by e.

5. A class of physical phenomena, related to flows and interactions of electric charge
6. (Can we verify this sense?) A field of physical science and technology, concerned with the phenomena of electric charge
7. Excitement.

   Opening night for the new production had an electricity unlike other openings.

Synonyms

alternating current (AC)

current – n.

energy – n.

power – n.

Electricity (from the New Latin ēlectricus, "amber-like") is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts, such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction.

In general usage, the word "electricity" is adequate to refer to a number of physical effects. In scientific usage, however, the term is vague, and these related, but distinct, concepts are better identified by more precise terms:

• Electric charge – a property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interactions. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields.
• Electric current – a movement or flow of electrically charged particles, typically measured in amperes.
• Electric field – an influence produced by an electric charge on other charges in its vicinity.
• Electric potential – the capacity of an electric field to do work on an electric charge, typically measured in volts.
• Electromagnetism – a fundamental interaction between the magnetic field and the presence and motion of an electric charge.

Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though advances in the science were not made until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Practical applications for electricity however remained few, and it would not be until the late nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry and society. Electricity's extraordinary versatility as a source of energy means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport, heating, lighting, communications, and computation. The backbone of modern industrial society is, and for the foreseeable future can be expected to remain, the use of electrical power.

Quotes about electricity

• "So astounding are the facts in this connection, that it would seem as though the Creator, himself had electrically designed this planet ..." ~ Nikola Tesla
• "Without electricty, there can be no art." ~ Nam June Paik
• "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." ~ Thomas Edison
• "Go hug your girlfriend! Or if you don't have any, go find one! You won't find the meaning of life with electricity!" ~ Pex Tufvesson (Kaktus & Mahoney)