potentiometer.

1. An electrical component with a movable contact on a resistive element, commonly used to provide an adjustable voltage division.

2. An instrument that measures an electrical potential by balancing it against a reference potential.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a rotary potentiometer
• a potentiometer wiper

On the page

The potentiometer wiper lost contact near the center of its travel.

She turned the rotary potentiometer while watching the reference voltage.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular potentiometer; plural potentiometers. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.