Volt

How to spell volt

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce volt

What does volt mean?

1. nounThe standard unit measuring electric potential difference or electromotive force.

Volt in a sentence

• The reading dropped by exactly one volt when the load increased.

• The meter showed a sudden drop of one volt across the circuit.

Where does volt come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The volt is named after Alessandro Volta, the Italian physicist who, around 1800, built the first device able to produce a steady electric current, the so-called voltaic pile, an early battery. His surname was eventually turned into a unit of measurement, a common way of honouring scientists in physics. The term volt was formally adopted as the international unit of electric potential at a congress of electricians in 1881, several decades after Volta's death. Because it comes from a person's name rather than an ordinary word, it carries no Latin or Greek root meaning, which is also why it has such a short, plain spelling. The related words voltage and voltaic share the same origin, and the unit sits in everyday company with the ampere and the watt, two other units drawn from the names of pioneering scientists.

How the word is built

• volt (from the surname of Alessandro Volta, with no separate prefix or suffix)