Electric

How to spell electric

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce electric

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does electric mean?

1. adjectivePowered by, producing, or relating to electricity.
2. adjectiveThrilling, tense, or full of sudden excitement.

Electric in a sentence

• The new electric car charges fully in under an hour.

• The atmosphere in the stadium was electric as the match began.

• A loose electric cable caused the power to flicker.

• Her speech created an electric mood across the whole room.

Where does electric come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word goes back to the Greek elektron, which literally meant 'amber', the fossilised tree resin. The ancient Greeks noticed that when amber was rubbed it attracted light objects such as feathers, a static effect that fascinated them. In 1600 the English scientist William Gilbert coined the Latin term electricus, meaning 'like amber' or 'produced from amber', to describe this attractive force, and from that came the English adjective 'electric' in the 1640s. The sense broadened from the curious property of rubbed amber to the entire field of electricity as scientists learned to generate and harness it. It is worth remembering that the whole modern vocabulary of power and circuits ultimately traces back to a Greek word for a lump of golden resin, and the spelling keeps that 'electr-' stem intact across electricity, electron, and electronic.

How the word is built

• electr- (from Greek elektron: amber)
• -ic (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')