attractTo tug a thing closer without touching it. Unlike poles attract. A magnet also attracts a plain piece of iron, whichever pole is turned toward it.
compassA direction finder whose needle is a small magnet. Magnetic north is not exactly the north of a map. The angle between the two at any place is called declination.
magnetAn object that iron clings to, with no glue needed. The first magnets people knew were lodestones, pieces of iron ore that are magnetized by nature.
magneticOf the kind that a magnet will pick up. Near a magnet, a magnetic object becomes a temporary magnet itself. Science books call that an induced magnet, and it is only ever attracted, never repelled.
magnetic fieldThe reach of a magnet: everywhere its pull extends. Iron filings scattered near a magnet line up and show its shape. Where the lines crowd together the force is strongest.
magnetismThe unseen force by which magnets pull and push. It works across a gap, so nothing has to touch. The word goes back to Magnesia, a place in what is now Turkey where magnetic stones were found.
Show all 36 terms (30 more)
Magnets and poles, continued
non-contact forceAny force that needs no touch, gravity for one. Magnetism is one too. Its opposite is a contact force, such as the push of a hand.
nonmagneticGiving no response to an ordinary magnet. Wood, sand and plastic are nonmagnetic. In everyday speech the word also covers materials that a magnet affects too weakly to feel.
north poleThe end of a hanging magnet that turns to face north. Its longer name is the north-seeking pole. It attracts the south pole of any other magnet.
repelTo shove a thing away without touching it. Only two magnets can repel each other. That makes repelling the sure test of whether a piece of metal is a magnet.
south poleThe end of a hanging magnet that turns to face south. Two south poles push each other apart, and so do two north poles.
steelThe everyday metal that fridge magnets cling to. Steel is iron with a little carbon in it. Some stainless steels are nonmagnetic.
Electricity and magnetism 12
armatureThe wire windings that carry the working current. Motors and generators both have one. In many motors it is the part that spins.
coilA spiral of wire, turn after turn. The fields of all its turns add up, so a coil makes a far stronger field than a straight wire.
commutatorA spinning switch that reverses a motor's current. It is a ring cut into segments that turns with the coil of the motor. Blocks called brushes press on it to carry the current across.
electric currentThe thing an ammeter reads: charge in motion. Its unit is the ampere. Direct current keeps to one direction, and alternating current reverses again and again.
electric motorA machine in which current and magnets spin a shaft. Inside, the field of a magnet pushes on a wire that carries current. Fans, power tools and disk drives all run on motors.
electromagnetA magnet that needs electricity to work. It is a coil of wire, usually wound on a piece of iron, which can make the field hundreds of times stronger. William Sturgeon built the first one in 1824.
electromagnetismThe science that ties electricity to magnetism. It began in 1820, when Hans Christian Ørsted saw that a current in a wire made a compass needle swing.
galvanometerA meter whose needle shows a very small current. The current runs through a coil, and the coil's magnetism moves the needle. It is named after the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani.
generatorA motor's opposite: spin it and current comes out. Inside, coils of wire and magnets move past each other. Generators supply nearly all of the power on electric grids worldwide.
permanent magnetA magnet whose field cannot be switched off. Bar magnets and horseshoe magnets are permanent. So is the magnet that holds a note on a refrigerator door.
relayA switch that is worked by an electromagnet. A weak signal in its coil can switch a separate circuit. The first relays passed messages along telegraph lines.
right-hand ruleA hand trick for finding which way a field circles. Point the right thumb along the current. The curled fingers show which way the field goes around the wire.
Earth, space and magnetism 12
charged particleA speck of matter that carries electric charge. Electrons and protons are charged particles. So is an ion, an atom with electrons missing or to spare.
Curie temperatureThe heat above which a magnet stops being one. For iron it is about 770 degrees Celsius. It is named after the French physicist Pierre Curie.
geodynamoThe process deep in Earth that makes its field. Heat escaping from the core keeps molten iron and nickel moving. The moving metal carries electric currents, and the currents make the field.
geomagnetic stormA major upset of Earth's field, set off by the sun. A strong one brings bright auroras. It can also upset power grids, satellites and navigation signals.
magnetic dipThe angle at which a free needle tilts from level. At the north magnetic pole the dip is 90 degrees: the needle points straight down. Another name is magnetic inclination.
magnetic equatorThe line around Earth where a needle lies level. North of it the north end of a free needle tips downward, and south of it that end tips upward. Its other name is the aclinic line.
magnetometerAn instrument that measures a magnetic field. A compass is the simplest kind: it gives the direction of the field. Some are small enough to sit on a computer chip.
magnetoreceptionAn animal's built-in sense of Earth's field. Some fish, reptiles, birds and mammals have it and use it mainly to find their way.
paleomagnetismThe study of ancient magnetism kept in rocks. Minerals in cooling lava can keep the direction of Earth's field. Such rocks show that the field has flipped over many times.
solar windThe nonstop outflow of particles from the sun. It is mostly protons and electrons. Near Earth it commonly blows at about 400 kilometers a second.
space weatherChanging conditions in space caused by the sun. At its worst it can damage satellites and cause blackouts. Scientists issue forecasts for it, as they do for rain.
Van Allen beltA ring of fast particles trapped by Earth's field. Earth has two main belts. They carry the name of James Van Allen, who described them in 1958.
How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-13. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the article on the term in the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Magnetism, Magnet, Compass, Non-contact force, Electromagnet, Electric current, Electromagnetic coil, Magnetic core, Electric motor, Electric generator, Armature (electrical), Commutator (electric), Galvanometer, Relay, Right-hand rule, Hans Christian Ørsted, Magnetic dip, Magnetometer, Earth's magnetic field, Dynamo theory, Paleomagnetism, Geomagnetic reversal, Curie temperature, Solar wind, Charged particle, Van Allen radiation belt, Geomagnetic storm, Space weather, Magnetoreception, North magnetic pole, Steel and Stainless steel. Attract, repel, north pole, south pole, magnetic field, permanent magnet, nonmagnetic, electromagnetism, armature, geodynamo and magnetic equator rest on their entries in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Magnetism as a force that cannot be seen, poles, attracting and repelling, the magnetic field and iron filings, magnetic and nonmagnetic materials, permanent and induced (temporary) magnets, non-contact forces, the test for a magnet, electromagnets, coils, iron cores and the nail, the motor effect and the generator effect were checked against BBC Bitesize pages (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/): Magnetism, Magnets, Magnetic poles, Induced and permanent magnetism, Introduction to electromagnetism, What is an electromagnet?, The motor effect and Electromagnetic induction. Generators and electricity from magnets were checked against Magnets and electricity and How electricity is generated of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/). Declination and magnetic north were checked against the U.S. Geological Survey answer What is declination? (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-declination). The solar wind, geomagnetic storms and Earth's magnetosphere were checked against the pages of the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena), and space weather against What Is Space Weather? of NASA Space Place (https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/spaceweather/en/). The fact after each meaning is from the same pages. The Curie temperature of iron is given in the article as 1,043 kelvins, which is about 770 degrees Celsius. Licence: own work
How it works
This magnetism vocabulary worksheet prints magnet, north pole, south pole, attract, repel, magnetic field, compass and five more terms down the left, with their meanings in mixed order down the right. The answer key is the last page.
Read the full guide
Electricity and magnetism vocabulary worksheet
Set opens on Magnets and poles. The second set, Electricity and magnetism, has electromagnet, permanent magnet, electromagnetism, electric current, coil, electric motor, generator, armature, commutator, galvanometer, relay and right-hand rule.
Earth, space and magnetism
The third set has magnetic dip, magnetic equator, magnetometer, geodynamo, paleomagnetism, Curie temperature, solar wind, charged particle, Van Allen belt, geomagnetic storm, space weather and magnetoreception.
Lodestone, iron filings, domain and the units tesla and gauss are answers on the magnetism crossword, not terms here.
Questions and answers
What metals are magnetic?
Iron, nickel and cobalt, and alloys that contain them, such as most steel. Most other metals are not: an everyday magnet will not pick up copper or aluminum.
Why does a compass point north?
Earth has a magnetic field of its own, and a compass needle is a small magnet that is free to turn, so it lines up with that field. Because opposite poles attract, the magnetic pole in Earth's north is, to a physicist, a south pole.
What happens if you cut a magnet in half?
You get two smaller magnets. Each half has a north pole and a south pole of its own, so cutting never leaves one pole by itself.
How are electricity and magnetism related?
Each can make the other. A current in a wire has a magnetic field around it, which is how electromagnets and motors work. A magnet moving near a coil makes a current flow, as Michael Faraday found in 1831, and generators use that.