resistance
noun
Simple meaning
Any mechanical force that tends to retard or oppose motion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihzistuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈzɪstəns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act of resisting, or the capacity to resist.
physics
An electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current
physics
Any mechanical force that tends to retard or oppose motion
physics
Electrical resistance.
An underground organisation engaged in a struggle for liberation from forceful occupation; a resistance movement.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current
Used this way, resistance is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use resistance
- “These trees are widely planted because of their resistance to salt and smog.”noun
- “He encountered a general feeling of resistance from many citizens.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An electrical device that resists the flow of electrical current.
Exhibiting or relating to electrical resistance.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Thermometer that measures temperature by changes in the resistance of a spiral of platinum wire.
Pyrometer that measures high temperatures by the resistance in a heated wire.
The reciprocal of conductance.
A material's opposition to the flow of electric current.
A material's opposition to the flow of electric current.
An armed wing of the (illegal) Communist Party of Spain.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Physical efforts to oppose a lawful arrest.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.