Electro

How to spell electro

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce electro

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does electro mean?

1. nounA style of electronic dance music driven by synthesisers and programmed drum machines.

Electro in a sentence

• The club plays electro until the early hours of the morning.

• His new album blends electro with vintage funk samples.

Where does electro come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek elektron, which literally meant 'amber', the fossilised tree resin that the ancient Greeks noticed could attract light objects after being rubbed with cloth. That static property gave amber its scientific fame, and when early modern researchers needed a name for the force, they coined Latinised forms such as electricus, meaning 'amber-like' or 'attracting as amber does'. From the 1600s English absorbed 'electric' and 'electricity', and the stem 'electro-' soon became a productive combining form for any term involving electric current, as in 'electromagnet' and 'electroplate'. In the late twentieth century the clipped form 'electro' took on a life of its own as the casual name for electronic dance music built on synthesisers and drum machines. The spelling keeps the Greek 'electr' root intact, which is the part to fix in memory, with the linking 'o' simply joining it to whatever follows.

How the word is built

• electr- (from Greek elektron: amber, the substance that produced static charge when rubbed)
• -o (linking/combining vowel)