Showing results for electric guitar. Search instead for Electric+Guitars.

electric guitar

American

noun

a guitar equipped with electric or magnetic pickups that permit its sound to be amplified and fed to a loudspeaker.

electric guitar British

noun

an electronically amplified guitar, used mainly in pop music Compare acoustic guitar

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of electric guitar

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The curvy design is by far the world’s most popular electric guitar shape.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026

He played the electric guitar and was part of a band called Section 8, which would perform at bars along the East Coast.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 10, 2026

He joined Fleetwood Mac in the 1990s for their 16th studio album, Time, and toured with them, before later starting a sustainable electric guitar company with industrial designer Ravi Sawhney in 2004.

From BBC • Apr. 22, 2026

Thudding drums, an electric guitar that chugs like a tank’s engine turning over and blaring trumpet fanfare announce the onset of football on CBS, Fox and NBC.

From Salon • Mar. 18, 2026

It was all she could hear before Juan’s thrash of electric guitar exploded across the song, blotting out the rest of the lyrics.

From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023