capacitive

American  

[kuh-pas-i-tiv] / kəˈpæs ɪ tɪv /

Sometimes capacitative

adjective

Electricity.

1. pertaining to electrical capacitance, or the property of being able to collect and hold a charge of electricity.

2. exhibiting or relying on electrical capacitance.

   smartphones with capacitive touchscreens that react to electrical impulses generated by your finger.

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Other Word Forms

• capacitively adverb

Etymology

Origin of capacitive

First recorded in 1915–20; capacit(y) + -ive

Example Sentences

Neither did Mazda abandon conventional switches, rotary knobs and paddles even as other companies were converting to capacitive and haptic controls.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

While conventional e-skins are either capacitive or resistive, the hybrid response e-skin employs both responses to pressure.

From Science Daily • May 3, 2024

Look into just about any new car and you’ll find a touchscreen and maybe even a bank of capacitive touch buttons that seek to approximate the function of mechanical buttons.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2022

It’s got built-in battery contacts, a USB port for programming instead of the old serial debugging pins, and capacitive touch hardware baked into the board itself.

From The Verge • Aug. 20, 2022

The combined effect of resistance R , inductive reactance XL , and capacitive reactance XC is defined to be impedance, an AC analogue to resistance in a DC circuit.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015