capacitor

noun

ca·​pac·​i·​tor kə-ˈpa-sə-tər 

: a device that is used to store electrical energy

Examples of capacitor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Sometimes motors are failing, capacitors are going weak. —Sergio Candido, CBS News, 22 Jan. 2026

To validate the concept experimentally, the researchers worked with a much larger ensemble, using around 10 million electrons suspended above liquid helium to form an effective capacitor. —Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 17 Jan. 2026

The soundtrack was playing, some friends dressed in 50s attire and one person came as the flux capacitor. —Kansas City Star, 1 Nov. 2025

As their name suggests, supercapacitors are like capacitors with greater capacity. —Perri Thaler, IEEE Spectrum, 22 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1925, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

capacitor

noun

ca·​pac·​i·​tor kə-ˈpas-ət-ər 

: a device for storing electric charge

called also condenser

Medical Definition

capacitor

noun

ca·​pac·​i·​tor kə-ˈpas-ət-ər 

: a device giving capacitance and usually consisting of conducting plates or foils separated by thin layers of dielectric (as air or mica) with the plates on opposite sides of the dielectric layers oppositely charged by a source of voltage and the electrical energy of the charged system stored in the polarized dielectric