electric current

Save This Word!

noun Electricity.

the time rate of flow of electric charge, in the direction that a positive moving charge would take and having magnitude equal to the quantity of charge per unit time: measured in amperes.

QUIZ

GOOSES. GEESES. I WANT THIS QUIZ ON PLURAL NOUNS!

Test how much you really know about regular and irregular plural nouns with this quiz.

Question 1 of 9

Which of the following nouns has an irregular plural form?

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Also called current, electricity.

Origin of electric current

First recorded in 1830–40

Words nearby electric current

electric cell, electric chair, electric charge, electric circuit, electric constant, electric current, electric dipole moment, electric discharge, electric-discharge lamp, electric displacement, electric eel

How to use electric current in a sentence

That stream of charged particles produces an electric current, which flows out of the battery to power whatever needs powering.
Novel lithium-metal batteries will drive the switch to electric cars|Katie McLean|February 24, 2021|MIT Technology Review
The Nationals’ biggest spring training roster questions are all on the marginsThe sense of a common experience, even though processed much differently, runs like a faint electric current through everyone who remembers.
Nothing can spoil the first day of spring training. (Though covid sure is giving it a shot.)|Thomas M. Boswell|February 18, 2021|Washington Post
A new slow-motion video offers the best view yet of the split-second collision of electric currents that creates a flash of lightning.
The birth of a lightning bolt was caught on video|Maria Temming|February 8, 2021|Science News
That could create a very short, but powerful surge of electric current, Neubert says.
Space station sensors saw how weird ‘blue jet’ lightning forms|Maria Temming|February 2, 2021|Science News For Students

Those reactions create charges that let the battery provide an electric current.
Batteries should not burst into flames|Carolyn Wilke|April 16, 2020|Science News For Students
Current and former intelligence officials have said North Korea has long been a priority target for American spies.
Was Sony Hit With a Second Hack?|Shane Harris|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
One of its top officials is the current minister of the interior in Baghad.
What an Iranian Funeral Tells Us About the Wars in Iraq|IranWire|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
She ultimately ditched JSwipe after about a week and found her current, non-Jewish, boyfriend on OkCupid.
My Week on Jewish Tinder|Emily Shire|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Judging from current figures, there would be a substantial demand for this option, too.
Men Will Someday Have Kids Without Women|Samantha Allen|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Under the current president and his predecessor, Jett notes, the ambassadorship of Belize has gone to college roommates.
U.S. Embassies Have Always Been for Sale|William O’Connor|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But he marred it all by a temper so ungovernable that in Paris there was current a byword, "Explosive as Garnache."
St. Martin's Summer|Rafael Sabatini
That—and no existing institution and no current issue—is the primary concern of the present age.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
It has been found, within the current year, impossible to read even a newspaper!
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
Like an electric shock, the well-known chords of the Tragala aroused his hearers—every one crowded round the singer.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846|Various
The effect of his drumming before the Café de la Loge was electric.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke

British Dictionary definitions for electric current

electric current

noun

another name for current (def. 8)

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