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amp

/æmp/
/æmp/
IPA guide

Other forms: amps

An amp is a unit of electricity. Your new air conditioner might use nine amps of power, replacing your less efficient old one.

When you're measuring electrical charge or current, you can express the units in amps, which is short for amperes. Since the 1880s, the definition of amp has been "the current that one volt can send through one ohm," and the word itself comes from the French physicist who helped found the science of electromagnetism, André-Marie Ampère.

Definitions of amp
  1. noun
    the basic unit of electric current adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites
    “a typical household circuit carries 15 to 50 amps
    synonyms: A, ampere
    see moresee less
    type of:
    current unit
    a measure of the amount of electric charge flowing past a circuit point at a specific time
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