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

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

She sang traditional gospel songs with contemporary jazz tempos that she played on her electric guitar.

From BBC • Mar. 7, 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

Now listen to the same phrase played by an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar with twelve steel strings34 and an acoustic guitar with six nylon strings.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones