Meaning & use
electrify
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Meanings
verbtransitive
to make someone feel extremely excited, surprised, or thrilled.
Grammar: Takes an object: electrify an audience. Often passive: was electrified by the news.
Patterns
- electrify someone
- be electrified by something
The singer's powerful voice electrified the crowd.
We were electrified by the unexpected victory.
Her speech electrified everyone in the room.
verbtransitive
to supply a place or system with electric power.
Grammar: Takes an object: electrify the railway. Often passive: the village was electrified.
Patterns
- electrify something
- be electrified
The government plans to electrify the rural railway lines.
Many remote villages were electrified only in the 1980s.
They are electrifying the bus fleet to cut pollution.
Word forms
| third person singular | electrifies |
|---|---|
| past tense | electrified |
| past participle | electrified |
| -ing form | electrifying |
Common combinations
- electrify an audience
- The rock band knows how to electrify an audience.
- electrify a railway
- The company plans to electrify the main railway within five years.
- be electrified by
- The students were electrified by the professor's passionate lecture.
- electrifying performance
- She gave an electrifying performance that won a standing ovation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- thrill
- Thrill is more common for personal excitement; electrify suggests a sudden, powerful shock of emotion.
- excite
- Excite is a general word; electrify is stronger and more dramatic.
- energize
- Energize means to give energy or vitality, often to a person or group; electrify is more about a thrilling emotional impact.
Opposites
Word family
- electrification noun
- The process of supplying power or the state of being powered by electricity.
- electrifying adjective
- Extremely exciting or thrilling.
Commonly confused: electrify or electric?
electrify vs electric
Electric is an adjective meaning powered by electricity; electrify is a verb meaning to power or excite.
Practice
The audience was ______ by the magician's final trick.
Choose one answer.
The passive 'was electrified' fits because the audience received the excitement. 'Electric' and 'electrical' are adjectives, not past participles, and 'electrifying' would mean the audience was exciting someone else, which is not the intended meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “electrify”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.