electric current \electric current\, electrical current
\electrical current\,
   the movement of electrically charged particles, atoms, or
   ions, through solids, liquids, gases, or free space; the term
   is usually used of relatively smooth movements of electric
   charge through conductors, whether constant or variable.
   Sudden movements of charge are usually referred to by other
   terms, such as spark or lightning or discharge. In
   metallic conductors the electric current is usually due to
   movement of electrons through the metal. The current is
   measured as the rate of movement of charge per unit time, and
   is counted in units of amperes. As a formal definition, the
   direction of movement of electric current is considered as
   the same as the direction of movement of positive charge, or
   in a direction opposite to the movement of negative charge.
   Electric current may move constantly in a single direction,
   called direct current (abbreviated DC), or may move
   alternately in one direction and then the opposite direction,
   called alternating current (abbreviated AC).
   [PJC]

	

	DC
    n 1: the district occupied entirely by the city of Washington;
         chosen by George Washington as the site of the capital of
         the United States and created out of land ceded by Maryland
         and Virginia [syn: District of Columbia, D.C., DC]
    2: an electric current that flows in one direction steadily
       [syn: direct current, DC, direct electric current]
       [ant: AC, alternating current, alternating electric
       current]

	

	37 Moby Thesaurus words for "DC":
   AC, absorption current, active current, alternating current,
   conduction current, convection current, cycle, delta current,
   dielectric displacement current, direct current,
   displacement current, eddy current, electric current,
   electric stream, emission current, exciting current,
   free alternating current, galvanic current, high-frequency current,
   idle current, induced current, induction current,
   ionization current, juice, low-frequency current,
   magnetizing current, multiphase current, pulsating direct current,
   reactive current, rotary current, single-phase alternating current,
   stray current, thermionic current, thermoelectric current,
   three-phase alternating current, voltaic current, watt current

	

	DC
       Data Cartridge

	

	DC
       Data-to-Clock [jitter] (DVD)

	

	DC
       Device Context

	

	DC
       Dublin Core [meta data]

	

	DC

    The Unix arbitrary precision postfix
   calculator and its language.

   Here is an example program which prints out factorials:

   	echo "[la1+dsa*pla2220>y]sy0sa1lyx" | dc

   Unix manual page: dc(1).

   bc provides a somewhat more readable syntax which is
   compiled into dc.  There is also a GNU DC.

   (1995-03-17)