Hertz
nounThe SI unit of frequency, equal to one cycle or one occurrence per second.
How to spell hertz
5 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce hertz
What does hertz mean?
- nounThe SI unit of frequency, equal to one cycle or one occurrence per second.
Hertz in a sentence
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The new monitor refreshes at one hundred and forty hertz for smoother motion.
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Mains electricity in the region is supplied at fifty hertz.
Where does hertz come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Hertz is an eponym, a word made from a person's name: it honours the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857 to 1894), who was the first to produce and detect electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and so confirmed the theories of James Clerk Maxwell. His surname is an ordinary German family name related to the word Herz, meaning 'heart', though the unit has nothing to do with the body. The International Electrotechnical Commission adopted hertz as the official name for 'cycles per second' in 1930, and it was endorsed for the metric system in 1960, replacing the older phrase. Because it comes from a proper name, the word keeps its German spelling with the silent-looking 't' before the 'z', which is exactly the cluster that trips writers up. It also sounds identical to the everyday verb 'hurts', so the German origin is the surest reminder of which spelling is meant.
How the word is built
- hertz (eponym, from the surname of physicist Heinrich Hertz); no prefix or suffix, treated as a whole-word unit name
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