adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An electrically insulating or nonconducting material considered for its electric susceptibility, i.e. its property of polarization when exposed to an external electric field.
2. 2
   a material such as glass or porcelain with negligible electrical or thermal conductivity wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   insulating

Synonyms

All synonyms

insulatorinsulatorconductanceconductionconductivityconductor

Antonyms

All antonyms

conductor

Example

More examples

"Mica is sometimes used as the dielectric in high-precision capacitors."

Etymology

From dia- (“through”) + electric. Learned 19th-century formation, coined by William Whewell (died 1866).

Related phrases

dielectric absorptiondielectric constantdielectric greasedielectric heatingdielectric strengthdielectric withstand test

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.