photoelectricity
Americannoun
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electricity induced by electromagnetic radiation, as in certain processes, as the photoelectric and photovoltaic effects, photoconductivity, and photoionization.
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the branch of physics that deals with these phenomena.
Etymology
Origin of photoelectricity
First recorded in 1875–80; photo- + electricity
Vocabulary lists containing photoelectricity
Physics - High School
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Electromagnetic Radiation - 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.
For example, the men who did the original work on photoelectricity, the phenomenon that now magically opens restaurant and railway station doors and performs a thousand sorting jobs in industry, were all pure scientists.
From Time Magazine Archive
And the man who first clarified photoelectricity by describing it mathematically was none other than Albert Einstein.
From Time Magazine Archive
The book, written with Physicist Arthur L. Hughes, turned out to be, at the time, the definitive work on photoelectricity.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
