electric guitar

American  

noun

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

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electric guitar British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of electric guitar

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

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

The dynamic singer delivered every lyric with his whole body as he frenetically tapped the buttons of his brightly colored accordion, doing his best to make the squeezebox sound like an electric guitar.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 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

In 1951, Leo Fender, a California designer and manufacturer of musical instruments, built and sold the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar, the Telecaster.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026

It is an electric guitar - an instrument invented in 1931 - played by a twenty-three-year-old African- American from Oklahoma, Charlie Christian, who co-wrote the song with Goodman.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall