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Glite Dictionary
🧲 Magnet's south end 🔋 Battery's minus end
negative pole

negative pole

4.0
The end of a battery marked with a minus sign that connects to the black wire
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : polo negativo
  • Be sure to connect the red wire to the positive pole and the black wire to the negative pole.

Examples

  • The negative pole of the battery is marked with a minus sign.

  • Reverse polarity can occur if you accidentally swap the positive and negative pole connections.

  • The corrosion was more severe near the negative pole of the old battery.

  • Connect the wire to the negative pole first.

  • When connecting the circuit, make sure to connect the wire to the negative pole of the battery first.

  • The negative pole of the battery is where the electric current starts flowing out into the device.

  • In a simple battery setup, the negative pole is usually marked with a minus sign to indicate its charge.

Surface Forms

negative pole singular
negative poles plural

Morphology

negative + pole

The meaning is directly compositional: 'negative' (having negative charge or potential) modifies 'pole' (an end/terminal of a battery or magnet), so the phrase straightforwardly denotes the battery terminal with negative potential. This is a standard technical label following transparent adjective+noun composition (and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically), so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Negative pole: The noun negative pole for batteries comes from the minus sign on one end of a cell and the idea that this end is less positive than the other. So, negative pole means the battery terminal often marked with a minus where the black wire connects.