battery

Definition

A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin Franklin by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled.

Example Sentences

• "alkaline battery"
• "sodium-ion battery"
• "lead-acid battery"

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