Jump To:

• Tesla coil
  Tesla coil

  noun

  an air-core transformer used to produce high voltages of high-frequency alternating currents.
• tesla coil
  tesla coil

  noun

  a step-up transformer with an air core, used for producing high voltages at high frequencies. The secondary circuit is tuned to resonate with the primary winding

Tesla coil

American  

noun

Electricity.

1. an air-core transformer used to produce high voltages of high-frequency alternating currents.

---

tesla coil British  

noun

1. a step-up transformer with an air core, used for producing high voltages at high frequencies. The secondary circuit is tuned to resonate with the primary winding

---

tesla coil Scientific  

1. An electrical device that generates extremely high voltages, usually for the purpose of creating dramatic electric arcs and lightning effects or for producing x-rays. Tesla coils use step-up transformers to boost the voltage of a power supply and build up large charges in a capacitor. A spark gap periodically shorts out the capacitor, releasing its charge in huge current flows, that generate extremely high voltages (up to ten million volts) through an open-air transformer.

---

Etymology

Origin of Tesla coil

First recorded in 1900–05; named after its inventor, N. Tesla

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Tesla coil tesla coil

The class had cobbled together a homemade Tesla coil, and wireless messages were sent from the basement to the school auditorium by students who, The Times adjudged, could “handle juice most familiarly.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2024

Here, we had a 1.5 million volt Tesla coil, throwing 8-to-12-foot real sparks.

From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2020

While still in high school, Markham and a friend, Tom Sheally, built a Tesla coil that could make lightning 3 or 4 feet long.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 31, 2020

In Griffith Park, we oozed uphill through heavy traffic toward the Tesla coil.

From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2020

His chosen instrument was the Tesla coil, a high-voltage transformer invented by the visionary physicist Nikola Tesla in the 1890s.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Their machine consists essentially of a tesla coil under oil and a cascading cathode tube.

From Time Magazine Archive