<B>electron, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a tiny particle carrying one unit of negative electricity; the unit charge of electricity found outside the nucleus of all atoms and having a mass about 1/1836 that of a proton. All atoms have electrons arranged about a nucleus. An electron may be positive (positron), but as the term is generally used, it refers to the negative form (negatron). <BR> <I>Ex. It is now recognized that the electrons do not always behave like tiny particles but sometimes manifest wave properties as well (P. E. Hodgson).</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> Also, <B>elektron.</B> </DL>
</DL>
<A NAME="electronarcosis">
<B>electronarcosis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> unconsciousness produced by an electric current passing through the brain between electrodes placed on the temples. </DL>
<A NAME="electronbeam">
<B>electron beam,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a stream of electrons moving in the same direction and with the same velocity. <BR> <I>Ex. The electron beam of the super-microscope has become a basic tool in research on disease (Harper's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electroncloud">
<B>electron cloud,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (in a vacuum tube) the area between the electrodes which contains a great number of relatively stationary electrons. </DL>
<A NAME="electrondiffraction">
<B>electron diffraction,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the diffraction of electrons when they pass through crystalline matter, useful in the study of the structure of materials. </DL>
<B>electronegative, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>charged with negative electricity. <DD><B> 2. </B>tending to pass to the positive pole (anode) in electrolysis. <DD><B> 3. </B>tending to gain electrons; nonmetallic; acid. <DD><I>noun </I> an electronegative substance. adv. <B>electronegatively.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="electronegativity">
<B>electronegativity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the condition of being electronegative. </DL>
<A NAME="electroneutrality">
<B>electroneutrality, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a condition in which the total charge of all the positive ions of a substance almost exactly equals the total charge of all the negative ions. </DL>
<A NAME="electrongas">
<B>electron gas,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any system of free electrons. <BR> <I>Ex. Each electron goes to form the communal "electron gas" which is responsible for the high electrical and thermal conductivity of the metallic state (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electrongun">
<B>electron gun,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a device that produces and guides the flow of electrons and greatly increases their speed. In a television picture tube or an oscilloscope, the electron gun focuses a beam of electrons on the fluorescent screen at the end of the tube. Electron guns are also used in oil refining and various other industries. </DL>
<A NAME="electronic">
<B>electronic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or having to do with electrons or electronics. <BR> <I>Ex. A skilled programmer must often spend days reducing the elements of a problem to numerical or electronic code before he can hold even a brief conversation with his machine (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>computerized; stored in or controlled by a computer. <BR> <I>Ex. There were more than 2800 publicly available electronic databases of all types (Science).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronically">
<B>electronically, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> by electronic means; in an electronic manner. </DL>
<A NAME="electronicart">
<B>electronic art,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a form of art that uses electronic materials, such as moving and flashing light displays, as the artistic medium. <BR> <I>Ex. Electronic music inspired him [Nam June Paik] to make electronic art, just as the Russian composer Scriabin made a motorized light display to accompany his Prometheus half a century ago (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronicbrain">
<B>electronic brain,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a complex electronic computer, usually of the digital type, such as ENIAC. </DL>
<A NAME="electronicchurch">
<B>electronic church,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) religious television programs of a church or evangelistic service designed for mass audiences, usually conducted by preachers of great personal appeal. </DL>
<B>electronic countermeasure,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an electronic device that misdirects the guidance system of an enemy missile. (Abbr:) ECM (no periods). </DL>
<A NAME="electronicengineer">
<B>electronic engineer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person skilled in electronic engineering. </DL>
<A NAME="electronicengineering">
<B>electronic engineering,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the branch of electrical engineering that deals with electronics and the use of electronic devices in radio, television, automation, and computers. </DL>
<B>electronic funds transfer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a system for transferring funds from one account or location to another by computer: (Abbr:) EFT (no periods). </DL>
<B>electronic mail,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a system for sending messages by computer, Telex, facsimile telegraph, or other electronic means instead of by post; e-mail or E mail. <BR> <I>Ex. Electronic mail ... is expected to capture a major portion of mail traffic (Christian Science Monitor).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an international fax service operated by the U.S. Postal Service. </DL>
<A NAME="electronicmailbox">
<B>electronic mailbox,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a system for receiving and storing electronic mail. </DL>
<A NAME="electronicmusic">
<B>electronic music,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> music created by various electronic generators and filters and usually recorded on tape and edited to form musical compositions. <BR> <I>Ex. One form of electronic music is the conversion of familiar sounds into new sounds by varying frequency, intensity and other qualities (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronicorgan">
<B>electronic organ,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an organ that uses electronic amplification to increase the volume of sound. An electronic organ has no pipes, but uses vacuum tubes to amplify the sound. </DL>
<A NAME="electronics">
<B>electronics, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the branch of physics that deals with the production, activity, and effects of electrons in motion through vacuum tubes, gas-filled tubes, semiconductors, and other devices. Electronics has made possible the development of television, radio, radar, and computers. </DL>
<A NAME="electronicswitching">
<B>electronic switching,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an automatic system of switching electric circuits by means of electronic components, especially in telephone circuitry. <BR> <I>Ex. Electronic switching ... allows a customer to transfer incoming calls automatically and to connect additional telephones to an existing call (J. M. Freeman).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronicwarfare">
<B>electronic warfare,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> warfare conducted by using computer-controlled weapons. <BR> <I>Ex. A squadron of Marine Corps electronic-warfare planes ... would try to destroy Iraqi missile sites (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronize">
<B>electronize, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to furnish with electronic equipment. </DL>
<A NAME="electronlens">
<B>electron lens,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the electrodes or conductors which set up electric or magnetic fields by which a beam of electrons can be focused, as light raysare by an optical lens. </DL>
<A NAME="electronmicrograph">
<B>electron micrograph,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the photograph or image of an object under an electron microscope. </DL>
<A NAME="electronmicroscope">
<B>electron microscope,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a microscope that uses beams of electrons instead of beams of light, and has much higher power than any ordinary microscope. An electron microscope is focused with an electron lens. Its enlarged images are not observable directly by the eye, but are projected upon a fluorescent surface or photographic plate. <BR> <I>Ex. A specimen for study under the electron microscope must be no "thicker" than .000003937 inch (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronmicroscopist">
<B>electron microscopist,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person skilled in the use of the electron microscope. </DL>
<A NAME="electronmicroscopy">
<B>electron microscopy,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the use of an electron microscope. </DL>
<A NAME="electronmultiplier">
<B>electron multiplier,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a vacuum tube that amplifies a current by a series of accelerations and secondary emissions of electrons. </DL>
<A NAME="electronograph">
<B>electronograph, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a device using a vacuum tube to produce images on a fine-grain photographic emulsion exposed to an accelerated beam of electrons. <DD><B> 2. </B>an image produced by such a device. </DL>
<A NAME="electronographic">
<B>electronographic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with electronography. <BR> <I>Ex. The Spectracon electronographic image intensifier was developed for astronomers, who face the problem of recording two-dimensional pictures which contain a large amount of detail and have a very wide range of brightness (Science Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronography">
<B>electronography, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the use of electronographs. <BR> <I>Ex. The cost of electronography to the user is high. Every time an exposed photographic plate is removed, the air destroys the highly reactive photosurface (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronoptical">
<B>electron-optical, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with electron optics. <BR> <I>Ex. An electron-optical lens focuses the highly accelerated electrons into a tiny spot (Paul H. Gleichauf).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="electronoptics">
<B>electron optics,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the branch of electronics that deals with the control of beams of electrons by an electric or magnetic field so that the rays act like rays of light in an optical instrument. </DL>
<A NAME="electrontube">
<B>electron tube,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=vacuum tube.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>a tube similar to a vacuum tube but filled with gas. </DL>
<A NAME="electronvolt">
<B>electron volt,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a unit of electrical energy used in nuclear physics. It is equal to the energy gained by an electron when it moves from one point to a point higher in potential by one volt. It is equal to 1.6 times (10 to the power of minus 12) ergs. In some particle accelerators, electrons having several billion electron volts of energy are produced. One Bev equals one billion electron volts. (Abbr:) e.v. or ev (no periods). </DL>
