electronics
Pluralelectronics
- 1Devices that run on electrical power and depend on the controlled flow of electrons through conductors and semiconductors to function.
He repairs broken electronics in a small workshop downtown.
Most modern electronics use tiny semiconductors to control electric current.
Note
The everyday use of the word is a collective name for anything that runs from a battery or an outlet: all the electronics in a room, a shop or a suitcase. In this sense the word behaves as a plural, so speakers say these electronics are, not this electronics is. That agreement is the easiest way to tell it apart from the name of the field, which stays singular.
- 2The study and use of electrical devices that work by controlling the flow of electrons or other charged particles, or by converting that flow to or from other forms of energy.
Electronics combines physics and engineering to design circuits and devices.
Advances in electronics gave us smaller and faster computers.
Note
A field named the way physics and mathematics are: electron plus the -ics that marks a discipline. As the name of a subject it takes a singular verb (electronics is a popular subject) even though it ends in -s. Its territory is the behavior of electrons in vacuum, gases and semiconductors, and the design of devices that use that flow to process signals, switch power or convert energy.
- 3The electronic circuits and components that form the inner workings of a device.
Water seeped into the radio and corroded its electronics.
The technician traced the fault to a burned component in the electronics.
Similarcircuitry
Note
Inside a single machine the word wavers in number, and both agreements are in use. The singular treats the circuitry as one working system that does a job. The plural thinks of it as a set of parts, the way the devices sense always does. Choose by emphasis: whole system, singular verb; separate components, plural.
The electronics is the difference between a modern and an old-fashioned thermostat.
The electronics are completely updated.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of electronics apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Formed from "electron" combined with the suffix "-ics."