capacitor

noun Electricity.

1. a device for accumulating and holding a charge of electricity, consisting of two equally charged conducting surfaces having opposite signs and separated by a dielectric.

noun

1. a device for accumulating electric charge, usually consisting of two conducting surfaces separated by a dielectricFormer name: condenser

n.

“device which stores electricity,” 1926, from capacity with Latinate agent-noun ending.

1. An electrical device consisting of two conducting plates separated by an electrical insulator (the dielectric), designed to hold an electric charge. Charge builds up when a voltage is applied across the plates, creating an electric field between them. Current can flow through a capacitor only as the voltage across it is changing, not when it is constant. Capacitors are used in power supplies, amplifiers, signal processors, oscillators, and logic gates. Compare induction coil resistor.

A device used in electrical circuits. The capacitor stores an electrical charge for short periods of time, and then returns it to the circuit.