capacitor
Americannoun
noun
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An electrical device consisting of two conducting plates separated by an electrical insulator (the dielectric), designed to hold an electric charge. Charge builds up when a voltage is applied across the plates, creating an electric field between them. Current can flow through a capacitor only as the voltage across it is changing, not when it is constant. Capacitors are used in power supplies, amplifiers, signal processors, oscillators, and logic gates.
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Compare induction coil resistor
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of capacitor
First recorded in 1925–30; capacit(y) + -or 2
Vocabulary lists containing capacitor
Electricity and Magnetism - Middle School
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Physics - Middle School
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Physics - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
I wouldn’t thank Doc Brown’s flux capacitor for my millions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
Simpler than a battery, a capacitor stores energy in the electrical field between conductive plates.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 18, 2024
The companies say in documents posted Thursday by U.S. safety regulators that a capacitor on a circuit board in the oil pump assembly for the transmission may have been damaged by the supplier during manufacturing.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
With apologies to Dr. Emmett Brown, you don’t need a flux capacitor to build a time machine.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2023
“Align the diode with the capacitor and then move the magnetron seven degrees left.”
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
Pulsed power stores energy in large capacitors and releases it in a burst, producing extremely high power for a brief moment, like a controlled lightning bolt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
They had several commercial uses, including in transformers and capacitors, oil used in motors and hydraulic systems, cable insulation, oil-based paint, caulking and plastics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2024
Then the array of detached coils, capacitors, pins and transistors are sieved, sorted, sliced and diced as they move along a conveyor belt.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2024
To avoid using a battery, they incorporate internal energy storage that can include a series of capacitors.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 18, 2024
Within the packages I found diodes, capacitors, a potentiometer, and more: all the final parts I needed to complete my teleporter.
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
