voltage
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of voltage
Explanation
Voltage is a measure of electrical energy. If you've got a high-voltage personality, people may use another electrical metaphor and describe you as "a live wire." Someone calculates voltage by determining the difference in electrical charge between two points in a circuit. When you travel, you'll want to make sure you bring along adapters to plug into the various sorts of electrical outlets you'll encounter around the world. Your chargers and all your electrical gear should have dual voltage capability, so they can work on electrical currents of 100 volts to 240 volts.
Vocabulary lists containing voltage
Engineering - Introductory
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Electricity and Magnetism - Introductory
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Physical Science - Energy - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
A safe cable contains wires that enable communication with the phone’s battery management system, which monitors temperature, tracks voltage and detects short circuits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
The state code requires that rooftop solar arrays have rapid shutdown systems that quickly reduce the voltage to a level that makes it safe for first responders to access a roof in an emergency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Neither its inquiry into our place in the universe nor its many references, in the background, to a North Korean incident that has kicked off World War III generates much dramatic voltage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Solid-state transformers are much lighter than the current version and can manipulate voltage in more sophisticated ways—almost like switching an analog system to digital.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
He droned on and on about dendrites and voltage gradients, but in my dream I couldn’t stop wondering how much of what I remembered about Jesse was truth and how much was fiction.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
Solid-state transformers convert power to different voltages, and go largely unnoticed, attached to telephone poles everywhere.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
It’s called a solid-state transformer, and it’s designed to convert power to different voltages.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
The innovation focuses on a key function in electronics: converting high voltages into the lower levels required by computing hardware.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 10, 2026
Thanks to electroencephalography, researchers can even link slow-wave sleep to a process of synchronous changes in electrical voltages in thousands of neurons, known as up and down states.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2024
These enormous, fleeting voltages made for pretty spectacles but not much else, however.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
