"free electron" meaning in English

See free electron in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: free electrons [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} free electron (plural free electrons)
  1. (physics, chemistry) An electron not attached to an atom. Categories (topical): Chemistry, Physics Translations (electron not attached to an atom): 自由電子 /自由电子 (zìyóu diànzǐ) (Chinese Mandarin), vapaa elektroni (Finnish), électron libre [masculine] (French), ελεύθερο ηλεκτρόνιο (eléfthero ilektrónio) [neuter] (Greek), elektron swobodny [masculine] (Polish), eletrão livre [Portugal, masculine] (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-free_electron-en-noun-fJ-ZDB9j Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Greek translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 77 23 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 80 20 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 82 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 90 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 81 19 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 84 16 Disambiguation of Terms with Greek translations: 84 16 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 88 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 78 22 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 45 55 Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics Disambiguation of 'electron not attached to an atom': 99 1
  2. (politics, figuratively) A person who acts independently of the organization to which they belong. Tags: figuratively Categories (topical): Politics
    Sense id: en-free_electron-en-noun-7G20zBHb Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 45 55 Topics: government, politics

Inflected forms

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        "An electron not attached to an atom."
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          "atom"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(physics, chemistry) An electron not attached to an atom."
      ],
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        "natural-sciences",
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zìyóu diànzǐ",
          "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
          "word": "自由電子 /自由电子"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
          "word": "vapaa elektroni"
        },
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          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "électron libre"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "eléfthero ilektrónio",
          "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "ελεύθερο ηλεκτρόνιο"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "elektron swobodny"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
          "tags": [
            "Portugal",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "eletrão livre"
        }
      ]
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          "ref": "2012 October 22, Lolita Buckner-Inniss, “Christiane Taubira”, in Black Past:",
          "text": "She has been called a “free electron” in politics because of her sometimes independent stances apart from party politics.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 71:",
          "text": "Haley was a free electron, which she had obviously gotten used to, communicating directly with Trump.",
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        "(physics, chemistry) An electron not attached to an atom."
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      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zìyóu diànzǐ",
      "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
      "word": "自由電子 /自由电子"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
      "word": "vapaa elektroni"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "électron libre"
    },
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      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "eléfthero ilektrónio",
      "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "ελεύθερο ηλεκτρόνιο"
    },
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      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "electron not attached to an atom",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "elektron swobodny"
    },
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      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
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      "tags": [
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        "masculine"
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      "word": "eletrão livre"
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}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (f889f65 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.