resistivity
Americannoun
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the power or property of resistance.
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Also called specific resistance. Electricity. the resistance between opposite faces of a one-centimeter cube of a given material; ratio of electric intensity to cross-sectional area; reciprocal of conductivity.
noun
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Former name: specific resistance. ρ. the electrical property of a material that determines the resistance of a piece of given dimensions. It is equal to RA/l , where R is the resistance, A the cross-sectional area, and l the length, and is the reciprocal of conductivity. It is measured in ohms
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the power or capacity to resist; resistance
Etymology
Origin of resistivity
Vocabulary lists containing resistivity
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.
"Our results provide a clear microscopic understanding of how resistivity works in low-density metals and open the door to new studies of strongly correlated atomic systems and quantum materials," says Thywissen.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026
Experts this week are expected to conduct soil resistivity testing, looking at how the soil around the towers absorbs and reacts to the flow of electric current.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2025
In 2021, she arranged for geographers and students from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., to use ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and other technologies to peer under the earth at Jungfernhof.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2023
Such systems exhibit a minimum in a plot of resistivity against temperature, which is observed by Li et al. for NdNiO2.
From Nature ● Aug. 27, 2019
In all cases the relation between the resistivity of a substance and the temperature is best set out in the form of a curve called a temperature-resistance curve.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 8 "Conduction, Electric" by Various
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.
