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battery

Pronunciation: /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/

The English word “battery” has 15 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
  2. Such a device that has multiple cells.
  3. The energy stored in such a device.
  4. The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence.
  5. A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.
  6. Such a group of a certain size (number of guns and artillerists), within a schema of military unit organization.
  7. An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.
  8. An array of similar things.
  9. A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
  10. The catcher and the pitcher together
  11. Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal
  12. A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance.
  13. A group of barracuda.
  14. The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired.
  15. Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin Franklin by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.