Skip to main content
PlainSpell

electric

electr·ic/ɪˈlɛktɹɪk/adjective, noun

electric is spelled E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C, 2 syllables: electr·ic. The wrong spelling people search most is eletric: about 690 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 51 of all searches for the word. Electric is an adjective meaning “Of, relating to, produced by, operated with, or utilising electricity; electrical”.

How many letters and syllables are in electric?

Letters8: E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C
Syllables2: electr·ic
In writing52 times per million words; the 1,941st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, eletric, about 690 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell electric?

Electric is spelled E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 32 of the searches for electric in either form.

electricthe right spelling34,270 searches a month
eletrica missing c690 searches a month
electica missing r430 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is electric?

Electric appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce electric?

  • UK /ɪˈlɛktɹɪk/
  • US /ɪˈlɛktɹɪk/
  • US /əˈlɛktɹɪk/

Electric has 2 syllables, split electr·ic in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-electric.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-electric.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with electric?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as electric from its last stressed vowel (/ɛktɹɪk/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of electric

  • electrics plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does electric mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Of, relating to, produced by, operated with, or utilising electricity; electrical.

    An electric oven needs an electric socket.

  2. 2

    Of or relating to an electronic version of a musical instrument that has an acoustic equivalent.

  3. 3

    Emotionally thrilling; electrifying.

noun

  1. 1

    informalElectricity; the electricity supply.

    We had to sit in the dark because the electric was cut off.

  2. 2

    informalrareAn electric car, locomotive, train etc.

  3. 3

    informalAn electric toothbrush.

  4. 4

    informalAn electric typewriter.

  5. 5

    archaicA substance or object which can be electrified; an insulator or non-conductor, like amber or glass.

  6. 6

    Fencing with the use of a body wire, box, and related equipment to detect when a weapon has touched an opponent.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate electric?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of electric: elex.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Electric in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchélectrique (electrical), voiture électrique (electric car)
Germanelektrisch (electrical), Elektro-Auto (electric car), elektronisch (electronic (musical instrument)), elektrisierend (emotionally thrilling)
Portugueseelétrico, eletrificado (electrical), eletrizante (emotionally thrilling)
Spanisheléctrico (electrical), coche eléctrico (electric car), electrónico (electronic (musical instrument)), electrizante (emotionally thrilling)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does electric come from?

First attested in c. 1646 in a publication by Thomas Browne. From New Latin ēlectricus (“electrical; of amber”), from ēlectr(um) (“amber”) + -icus (“adjectival suffix”); from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, “amber”); related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēléktōr, “shining sun”), of unknown origin (see which for more). The Latin term was apparently used first with the sense electrical in 1600 by the English physician and scientist William Gilbert in his work De Magnete.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after electric