contact wire

noun

A bare wire conducting electricity, often the lower part of the catenary, which comes into contact with a raised pantograph or other form of current collector.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nouncontact wire (plural contact wires)

plural contact wires

  1. rail transportA bare wire conducting electricity, often the lower part of the catenary, which comes into contact with a raised pantograph or other form of current collector.

    Overhead electric equipment generally stood up well both to the weight of vertically falling snow and to the effects of snow on contact wires; [...].

    1962 March, “The New Year Freeze-up on British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 158
Cite this entry
APA

contact wire. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contact%20wire

MLA

“contact wire.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contact%20wire. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “contact wire,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contact%20wire.

Source: contact wire on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.