Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A negatively charged electrode, as of an electrolytic cell, a storage battery, or an electron tube.
- noun The positively charged terminal of a primary cell or a storage battery that is supplying current.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The negative pole of an electric current: opposed to anelectrode or anode. Also spelled
kathode . Also calledcatelectrode .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Physics) The part of a voltaic battery by which the electric current leaves substances through which it passes, or the surface at which the electric current passes out of the electrolyte; the negative pole; -- opposed to
anode . - noun (Phys.) a kind of ray generated at the cathode in a vacuum tube, by the electrical discharge.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the
electrode of anelectrochemical cell at whichreduction occurs - noun the electrode through which current flows out of a device or cell (the
negative terminal of anelectrolytic cell or thepositive terminal of agalvanic cell ) - noun the terminal through which current flows out of a diode when current is in the forward direction regardless of the direction the current is actually flowing
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a negatively charged electrode that is the source of electrons entering an electrical device
- noun the positively charged terminal of a voltaic cell or storage battery that supplies current
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cathode.
Examples
-
The only difference between these two cells was that in Lenard's cell the electrons were taken from the cathode by light, whereas on the "3-electrode lamp" the cathode is a white-hot filament capable of sending into the vacuum currents of much higher intensity.
-
For one thing, the free-moving electrons, with which we are concerned in cathode rays and in some types of Becquerel rays, give rise to many interesting problems.
-
The same or similar values for the ratio mentioned above have been found for the negative particles with which we are concerned in cathode rays.
-
In the preface to his book he expressed his intention to relate chemical research to industrial processes and in the same year he reported the results of his work on electrolytic oxidation and reduction, in which he showed that definite reduction products can result if the potential at the cathode is kept constant.
-
It was known that when an electric discharge passes in a glass tube through a sufficiently rarefied gas, the part facing the cathode is illuminated by a fluorescence on which the shadow of any obstacle placed in front of the cathode is outlined; and that the cathode rays definable in this way, are deflected by the magnetic field, describing a circular trajectory when they are thrown at right angles to a uniform field (Hittorf).
-
Most batteries are packaged with both the positive electrode (called the cathode during discharge) and the negative electrode (the anode).
-
Most batteries are packaged with both the positive electrode (called the cathode during discharge) and the negative electrode (the anode).
-
Most batteries are packaged with both the positive electrode (called the cathode during discharge) and the negative electrode (the anode).
Running On Air 2010
-
Most batteries are packaged with both the positive electrode (called the cathode during discharge) and the negative electrode (the anode).
-
It's hard to remember now, but in the olden days TV sets and computer monitors used a technology called cathode ray tubes.
Obsolescent Planning 2008
vanishedone commented on the word cathode
Where on Earth is WeirdNet #4 coming from? Taking terminal as a synonym, maybe?
February 9, 2009