battery

Syllables: bat·te·ry/ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi//ˈbæt.əɹi/

battery noun: a device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.

Image: en:Brianiac, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

battery (countable and uncountable, plural batteries)

(countable) A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
- alkaline battery
- sodium-ion battery
1. (strictly) Such a device that has multiple cells.
  - Her phone needs a new battery because its present battery no longer holds a charge well.
  - Upon this We made what we call’d an Electrical Battery, consisting of eleven Panes of large Sash Glass, arm’d with thin leaden Plates, pasted on each Side...
  - A Turky is to be killed for our Dinners by the Electrical Shock; and roasted by the electrical Jack, before a Fire kindled by the Electrified Bottle; when the Healths of all the Famous Electricians in England, France and Germany, are to be drank in Electrified Bumpers, under the Discharge of Guns...1749 Benjamin Franklin, letter to Peter Collinson
(informal, metonymically, uncountable) The energy stored in such a device.
- Her phone did not have enough battery for another phone call.
- A: How much battery do you have left? B: Only 63%.
The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence.
- Holonym: assault and battery
- […] A battery is the actual infliction of unlawful personal violence. […] [The defendant] fell to the ground and lashed out with his feet and in doing so kicked the hand of one of the police officers, fracturing a bone. He was charged with assault […] although this was a battery.2003, Mike Molan, Modern Criminal Law, 5th edition, 7.2.2-3, pages 221–222
(collective, countable) A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.
- Outside the ancient fort, you can still see worn areas in the stone where the batteries were once placed.
1. (collective) Such a group of a certain size (number of guns and artillerists), within a schema of military unit organization.
  - They sent four batteries southward in an attempt to shore up the defenses around the depot.
  - the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces.2005, Barry Leonard, Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War, page 20
(archaic, historical) An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.
- The construction of advanced batteries mirrored that of those built along the line of circumvallation. [...] Although Mahan demanded that batteries be constructed to exacting dimensions and revetted with gabions, fascines, and sandbags, at Vicksburg the resources at hand determined what materials...2015, Justin S. Solonick, Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg, pages 142–143
- such forts being so contrived as to have two or three batteries, one higher than the other, furnished with many cannon.1780, John Robertson et al., The Elements of Navigation, page 53
An array of similar things.
- Schoolchildren take a battery of standard tests to measure their progress.
A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
- ‘Do you know how battery chickens live?’2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 403
The catcher and the pitcher together
Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal
A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance.
(collective) A group of barracuda.
The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired.
- in battery
- out of battery
(archaic) Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.

Proper noun capitalized: Battery

the Battery

A park in Manhattan, New York City.

battery meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

battery in Hindi

device storing electricity: विद्युत कोष vidyut koṣ, बैटरी baiṭrī, सेल sel
legal: act of unlawful violence: आक्रमण ākramaṇ

battery in Tamil

device storing electricity: பேட்டரி pēṭṭari, மின்கலம் miṉkalam

battery in Urdu

device storing electricity: بَیٹْری baiṭrī, سیل sel

battery in Bengali

device storing electricity: ব্যাটারি bêṭari

More languagesFewer languages

battery in Malayalam: ബാട്രി bāṭri, ബത്തേരി battēri, ബാറ്ററി bāṟṟaṟi
battery in Kannada: ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ಕೋಶ, ಬ್ಯಾಟರಿ, ತುಪಾಕಿಗಳ ಸಾಲು, ಗೂಡುಗಳ ಸಾಲು
battery in Gujarati: વીજકોષ vījkoṣ
battery in Sinhala: බැටරි bæṭari
battery in Pashto: بېترۍ betrǝy, بېټرۍ beṭrᶕy, بطريه batrya, بتۍ batǝy
battery in Tagalog: salansan, baterya
battery in Arabic: بَطَّارِيَّة baṭṭāriyya, ضَرْب ḍarb, اِعْتِدَاء iʕtidāʔ
battery in Malay: bateri, baterai
battery in Indonesian: baterai, aki
battery in Thai: แบตเตอรี่ bɛ̀t-dtəə-rîi, ถ่านไฟฉาย tàan-fai-chǎai
battery in Vietnamese: pin, bình điện, khẩu đội pháo, ẩu đả
battery in Myanmar: ဓာတ်ခဲ dhathkai:, ဓာတ်အိုး dhat-ui:, ဘက်ထရီ bhakhta.ri

Examples of battery in a sentence

His car takes a 550-CCA lead-acid battery.
In this circumstance, you will have to rack the slide to get back in battery.
Extra battery packs are bulky and pricey.2010, Phillip J. Boucher, The Complete Guide to Canada's General Mobile Radio Service, Phillip J. Boucher, →ISBN, page 42:
[For his experiments with electricity,] Benjamin Franklin utilized Leyden jars and referred to several jars hooked together as a battery (after a "battery" of cannon).2012, John Karsnitz et al., Engineering Design: An Introduction, page 364:
[The voltage of a single cell is] too low for most applications [... so] a series of cells will be used to obtain the desired voltage – a "battery" of cells, in the strictest sense of the term.2012, Christian Glaize, Sylvie Genies, Lead and Nickel Electrochemical Batteries, page 6:
He offered three types of battery for which Mr.2023 May 9, Lola Fadulu, “New York law gave jurors three types of battery to consider in the Trump case.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

All 40 example sentences with battery

Forms of battery

plural	batteries

Plural of battery: batteries

Origin of battery

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin Franklin by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled.

Named for a coastal artillery battery that once stood there.

Phrases with battery

39 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with battery

Questions about battery

What does battery mean?: Battery means a device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
What is battery in Hindi?: Battery in Hindi is विद्युत कोष (vidyut koṣ), बैटरी (baiṭrī), सेल (sel). See Battery meaning in Hindi.
How do you use battery in a sentence?: His car takes a 550-CCA lead-acid battery.
What part of speech is battery?: Battery can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce battery?: Battery is pronounced /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/ (UK).
What is the plural of battery?: The plural of battery is batteries.

Words near battery in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: battery (page history and authors); Battery (page history and authors); ബത്തേരി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); battery (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); વીજકોષ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-battery.ogg, En-us-battery.ogg.

Cite this entry: “battery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/battery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.