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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Circuits and Components

Switch

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

/swɪtʃ/nounCore term

In electrical & electronics engineering, switch means: A device that opens or closes a circuit, either by hand or automatically. It can be mechanical, like a toggle switch or a push button, or electronic, like a transistor.

In Turkish: anahtar, şalter, düğme

How it is used

Used as a noun and a verb: switch on, switch off, switch over. Engineers talk about toggle switches, push buttons, limit switches and selector switches, and about contact types such as NO (normally open) and NC (normally closed).

Example sentences

  1. The limit switch stops the door motor when the door is fully open.

  2. Flip the switch to the off position before you change the fuse.

Common collocations

  • switch on
  • switch off
  • limit switch
  • toggle switch
  • normally open
  • relayAn electrically operated switch: a small current through its coil moves contacts that switch a separate, often much larger circuit. Solid-state relays do the same job without moving parts.
  • circuit breakerAn automatic switch that opens a circuit when it detects too much current, for example from an overload or a short circuit. Unlike a fuse, it can be reset and used again.
  • transistorA semiconductor device used to switch or amplify signals. A small current or voltage at one terminal controls a much larger current through the other two.
  • MOSFETA type of field-effect transistor controlled by the voltage on its gate. It is the most common switch in power electronics and digital chips, and its terminals are called gate, drain and source.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Circuits and Components

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