rheostat.
An electrical resistor with two terminals, the resistance of which can be varied continuously by moving a knob or slider to regulate the flow of an electric current.
Meaning & usage
An electrical resistor with two terminals, the resistance of which can be varied continuously by moving a knob or slider to regulate the flow of an electric current.
An electrical resistor with two terminals, the resistance of which can be varied continuously by moving a knob or slider to regulate the flow of an electric current. Such a device used to regulate the brightness of an electric light; a dimmer.
A notional device which causes some quality to vary.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ser-? Proto-Indo-European *srew- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *sréweti Proto-Hellenic *hréwō Ancient Greek ῥέω (rhéō) English rheo- English -stat English rheostat From rheo- (prefix meaning ‘current; flow’) + -stat (suffix forming the names of scientific instruments which render the prefixed elements static or stationary in some respect), coined by the English physicist and inventor Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875) in an 1843 journal article: see the quotation. * Rheo- is derived from Ancient Greek ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow, stream”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow, stream”), possibly from *ser- (“to flow”). * -Stat is derived from Ancient Greek -στάτης (-státēs), from ῐ̔́στημῐ (hĭ́stēmĭ, “to stand; to stop”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.