electricity

plural electricities

1. uncountableusuallyOriginally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now understood to be a phenomenon caused by the distribution and movement of charged subatomic particles and their interaction with the electromagnetic field.First known use 17th c.

   How does it work, though? It's based on the observation made some 200 years ago that electricity can change the shape of flames.

   2011 March 29, Jon Henley, The Guardian

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   Again, the concretion of Ice will not endure a dry attrition without liquation ; for if it be rubbed long with a cloth, it melteth. But Cryſtal will calefie unto electricity ; that is, a power to attract ſtraws or light bodies, and convert the needle freely placed.

   1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 4th edition, page 56

   For, reſtoring the equilibrium in the bottle does not at all affect the Electricity in the man thro’ whom the fire paſſes ; that Electricity is neither increaſed nor diminiſhed.

   1747 July 28, Benjamin Franklin, letter to Peter Collinson, collected in New Experiments and Observations on Electricity, part I, 3rd edition, London: D. Henry and R. Cape, published 1760, page 8

   Attraction, then, is the first phenomenon that arrests our attention, and it is one that is constantly attendant on excitation. It is therefore considered a sure indicator of the presence of electricity in an active state, and forms the basis of all its tests.

   1837, William Leithead, Electricity, page 5

   We may express all these results in a concise and consistent manner by describing an electrified body as charged with a certain quantity of electricity, which we may denote by e.

   1873, James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

2. uncountableusuallynatural sciencesThe study of electrical phenomena; the branch of science dealing with such phenomena.First known use 18th c.

   He took up the job of studying electricity in college.

3. uncountableusuallyA feeling of excitement; a thrill.First known use 18th c.

   Opening night for the new production had an electricity unlike other openings.

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   The electricity was crackling around Celtic Park even before a ball had been kicked, the home crowd unleashing noise and colour and every ounce of passion in their bodies on the visitors.

   2016 September 28, Tom English, “Celtic 3–3 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport

4. uncountableusuallyElectrical power, as supplied by power stations or generators.First known use 19th c.

   This heater draws more than a thousand watts of electricity.

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   Householders could one day be producing as much electricity as all the country's nuclear power stations combined, thanks to the revolutionary application of a device developed in the early 19th century.

   2000, James Meek, Home-made answer to generating electricity harks back to the past The Guardian

   [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

   2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

5. uncountableusuallyElectrical energy, as supplied by power stations or generators.

   Last year this portion of the grid consumed more than a thousand megawatt-hours of electricity.

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   New facilities consume more electricity than ever. A rack of servers stuffed with AI chips requires about ten times more power than a non-AI version a few years ago. A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that in 2023 America's data centres used 176 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. That is forecast to increase to between 325TWh and 580TWh by 2028 (see chart 2), or 7-12% of America's total consumption, with hyperscalers accounting for about half.

   2025 July 28, Editorial staff, “How big tech plans to feed AI's voracious appetite for power. As data centres get more energy-hungry, the hyperscalers get more creative”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 28 Jul 2025

6. attributiveoftenuncountableusuallybusinessThe supply of electricity, as a utility.

   Electricity bosses set to make record profits.