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resistivity

American  
[ree-zis-tiv-i-tee] / ˌri zɪsˈtɪv ɪ ti /

noun

  1. the power or property of resistance.

  2. 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.

resistivity British  
/ ˌriːzɪsˈtɪvɪtɪ /

noun

  1. 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

  2. the power or capacity to resist; resistance

"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
resistivity Scientific  
/ rē′zĭs-tĭv′ĭ-tē /

  1. A measure of the potential electrical resistance of a conductive material. It is determined experimentally using the equation ρ = RA/l, where R is the measured resistance of some length of the material, A is its cross-sectional area (which must be uniform), and l is its length. It is measured in ohm-meters.

Etymology

Origin of resistivity

First recorded in 1880–85; resistive + -ity

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.

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

A superconductor is characterized by zero resistivity and perfect diamagnetic behavior, which leads to dissipationless transport and magnetic levitation.

From Science Daily • Oct. 2, 2023

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

The presence of a very small proportion of a non-metallic element in a metallic mass, such as oxygen, sulphur or phosphorus, has a very great effect in increasing the resistivity.

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.