Electrolyte

How to spell electrolyte

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce electrolyte

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does electrolyte mean?

1. nounA substance that conducts electricity when dissolved or molten, or a mineral salt in body fluids that helps regulate hydration and nerve function.

Electrolyte in a sentence

• After the long run she drank a sports drink to replace each lost electrolyte.

• The battery cell relies on a liquid electrolyte to carry charge between the plates.

Where does electrolyte come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word was assembled in the nineteenth century from two parts that both look back to Greek. The first half, electro-, comes from the Greek elektron, which literally meant 'amber'; the ancient Greeks noticed that rubbed amber could attract light objects, and so the substance gave its name to the whole study of electricity. The second half comes from the Greek lytos, meaning 'able to be loosened or dissolved', from the verb lyein 'to loosen', the same root that gives us 'analysis' and 'dialysis'. The English chemist Michael Faraday and his colleague William Whewell coined the term around 1834 for a substance that conducts electricity when melted or dissolved, because passing a current through it loosens the substance into its component ions. The spelling trap lives in that ending: it is -lyte with a 'y', echoing its dissolving Greek root, not the -lite of minerals nor a plain -light.

How the word is built

• electro- (relating to electricity)
• -lyte (from Greek lytos: able to be loosened or dissolved)