Polarity

How to spell polarity

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce polarity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does polarity mean?

1. nounThe condition of having two sharply opposed extremes, qualities, or groups.
2. nounThe property of having two opposite electrical charges, magnetic poles, or terminals.

Polarity in a sentence

• The debate revealed a deep polarity between the two departments.

• Check the battery polarity before connecting the cables.

• Growing political polarity made any compromise harder to reach.

• Reversing the polarity of the magnet flipped the direction of the field.

Where does polarity come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek polos, which meant the axis or pivot on which something turns, and by extension the end point of that axis. Latin took this in as polus to name the end points of the Earth's axis, the celestial poles around which the sky appears to wheel. From the same idea came the medieval Latin polaris, meaning 'of the pole', and by the 1600s English scientists had built the abstract noun 'polarity' to describe the property of having two opposite ends or charges, first in discussions of magnets and the compass. From magnetism the sense broadened to electricity, and then into ordinary language for any sharp split into two opposing camps. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: writers hear 'puh-LAR-ih-tee' and the schwa hides whether to write a or e, but remembering 'pole' fixes the o, and the -ar of 'polar' fixes the rest.

How the word is built

• pol(e) (from Greek polos: axis, pivot)
• -ar (adjective: relating to)
• -ity (noun: state or quality)