battery
Pluralbatteries
- 1A device that powers electric equipment, made up of one or more connected electrochemical cells.
The smoke detector beeps when its battery runs low.
Electric cars store energy in large batteries mounted under the floor.
UsageA battery runs low, runs out or dies; you charge, change or replace it.
Note
The type is named by what stands in front of it, such as alkaline, lead-acid or sodium-ion, and size codes work the same way, as in a flashlight that takes two AA batteries. The word once also covered electrostatic cells, a use now archaic.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Battery formerly also referred to electrostatic cells; that sense is now archaic. en.wiktionary.org
- 2The energy stored in a device's battery, especially the amount remaining before recharging.
Streaming video drains battery much faster than reading does.
The laptop's new update is supposed to use less battery overnight.
UsageSay how much battery is left, or that a phone is low on battery or out of battery; in careful writing, charge is more usual.
- 3The unlawful use of force or offensive physical contact against another person, traditionally distinguished from assault, the threat of such force.
She faced charges of assault and battery after the altercation.
Unwanted physical contact, even without injury, can constitute battery.
UsageOften in the fixed phrase assault and battery; someone is charged with or arrested for battery.
Note
The law pairs it with assault in the fixed phrase assault and battery: traditionally, assault is the threat and battery the contact itself, though many jurisdictions blur the line. It reaches well beyond blows. Lola Fadulu reported in 2023 that New York jurors were given rape, sexual abuse and forcible touching as forms of battery.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Assault and battery is an established legal pairing. en.wikipedia.org
- Traditionally, assault concerns apprehended violence and battery involves physical contact. en.wikipedia.org
- Battery can include contact less violent than blows. en.wikipedia.org
- Lola Fadulu published the relevant report in 2023. en.wikipedia.org
- Fadulu reported that the jurors were offered rape, sexual abuse and forcible touching as three types of battery under New York law. en.wiktionary.org
- 4A group of artillery guns operating together, or the military unit of guns and crews that operates them.
He commanded a battery in the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment.
Each battery in the battalion reported its ammunition levels by radio.
Note
Here battery is a rung in the military hierarchy, counted the way companies are. Lawrence A. Yates's Army study Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War lists marines with three 105-mm howitzer batteries, "each with six pieces." The unit is defined by its guns and crews together. Its size comes from the army's organizational scheme, not from the word itself.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- An artillery battery occupies an organizational level equivalent to a company. en.wikipedia.org
- Lawrence A. Yates authored the Army study Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War. armyupress.army.mil
- The study describes marines with three 105-mm howitzer batteries containing six pieces apiece; the quoted wording is exact. en.wiktionary.org
- A battery as an organizational unit includes weapons and personnel, with numbers determined by military organization. en.wikipedia.org
- 5An elevated platform or raised emplacement on which cannons could be placed and fired.
Visitors can climb onto the old stone battery where cannons once guarded the harbor.
His grand battery was as badly provided with cannon as his little battery, for not a single gun was mounted on either.
1776, Charles Carroll, Brantz MayerNote
A structure rather than a set of guns. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, keeping a journal in 1776, could complain that a "grand battery" had not a single gun mounted, and that is the test for this sense: such a battery can stand empty. Today it lives mainly in historical writing, as when Justin Solonick describes Union siege batteries at Vicksburg revetted with gabions and sandbags.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- This sense denotes a structure that can exist without guns mounted on it. upload.wikimedia.org
- Charles Carroll of Carrollton wrote the journal in 1776. upload.wikimedia.org
- Carroll described a grand battery without a single gun mounted. upload.wikimedia.org
- Justin Solonick describes gabion and sandbag revetments in Union siege batteries at Vicksburg. repository.tcu.edu
Less common meanings
- 6An array or series of similar things, especially tests, questions, or pieces of equipment used together.
Applicants must complete a battery of psychological assessments before the interview.
A battery of floodlights lit the stadium for the night game.
UsageUsually a battery of something: a battery of tests, questions or floodlights.
- 7A series of small connected cages in which laying hens are confined for intensive egg production.
Hens raised in a battery rarely have room to spread their wings.
The new state law phases out battery cages in favor of larger enclosures.
UsageMostly before another noun: battery hens, battery cages, battery farms.
Note
Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) has a character ask, "Do you know how battery chickens live?" It most often turns up in arguments about how laying hens are housed, and the tone is often critical.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Zadie Smith wrote White Teeth. en.wikipedia.org
- White Teeth was first published in 2000. openlibrary.org
- A character in White Teeth asks the quoted question with this exact wording. en.wiktionary.org
- 8In baseball, the pitcher and the catcher considered together as a single unit.
The veteran battery of Smith and Jones held the lineup to three hits.
Both halves of the battery were named to the all-star team.
Note
Baseball's word for a pairing, usually given with both names attached: the battery of one pitcher and one catcher. Because it names two people as a single unit, it can be split, and each player is half of the battery. It treats the two as a working partnership, which is why sportswriters praise or blame a battery together.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- A baseball battery consists of one pitcher and one catcher: two players, each constituting half of the pair. img.mlbstatic.com
- 9The full set of utensils and equipment used for preparing or serving meals.
Note
A kitchen word now archaic in English, met in old inventories and household writing rather than modern recipes. It comes from the same French batterie as the rest of the word's senses. In present-day writing it suits period color. For ordinary use, cookware or kitchenware is the safe modern choice.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- The kitchen sense shares the French source batterie with the other noun senses. en.wiktionary.org
- 10In a marching band, the percussion section that marches on the field during a performance; more generally, any marching percussion ensemble.
- 11The condition of a firearm or artillery piece when its mechanism is fully closed or positioned so it can safely fire.
- 12Two or more chess pieces positioned to work together along the same rank, file, or diagonal.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of battery apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
English borrowed Middle French batterie, which developed from Old French baterie ("action of beating"). That noun derives from batre ("to beat"), tracing back to Latin battuō ("beat"), perhaps of Gaulish origin. Benjamin Franklin coined the electrical sense by comparing his connected set of Leyden jars to a military battery.