Quadrupole

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A distribution of either electric charge or magnetization equivalent to two dipoles that point in opposite directions.

    "Consider a linear quadrupole consisting of a point charge of strength 2q at the origin and point charges of strength —q at (0, 0, a) and (0, 0, —a)."

  2. 2
    A magnet with two north poles and two south poles, used to focus a beam of particles.

Example

More examples

"Consider a linear quadrupole consisting of a point charge of strength 2q at the origin and point charges of strength —q at (0, 0, a) and (0, 0, —a)."

Etymology

From quadru- + pole.

Related phrases

nuclear quadrupole resonanceelectric chargenorth polesouth pole

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