Ĕn'er-ġy, n.
n. [Gr. ἐνέργεια, from ἐνεργός; Fr. énergie, Sp., It., & L. Lat. energia. See ENERGETIC.]
Sense 1. Internal or inherent power; capacity of acting, operating, or producing an effect, whether exerted or not; as, men possessing energies sometimes suffer them to lie inactive.
The great energies of nature are known to us only by their effects. Paley.
Sense 2. Power efficiently and forcibly exerted; vigorous or effectual operation; as, the energy of a magistrate.
Sense 3. Strength of expression; force of utterance; life; spirit; emphasis; as, language remarkable for its energy.
Sense 4. (Mech.) Capacity for performing work, or moving against resistance;—distinguished as actual energy, in reference to the work which, in a given case, it actually performs; and as potential energy, in reference to the work which it is capable of performing if fully exerted.
☞ Actual energy is exemplified in the vis viva of moving bodies, in heat, electric currents, &c.; potential energy, in a bent spring, or a body suspended a given distance above the earth and acted on by gravity.
Synonyms—Force; power; vigor; strength; spirit; efficiency; resolution.