Cathode

An electrode with a positive charge. The "plus" end of a battery. Compare with Anode.

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I'd like to explain why this contradicts Webster's definition below, but the writeup at anode already tells the story so well...

1. The electrode in an electrochemical cell toward which cations are drawn and where reduction occurs.
2. The negatively charged electrode in a vacuum tube.

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From the BioTech Dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/. For further information see the BioTech homenode.

Cath"ode (?), n. [Gr. descent; down + way.] Physics

The part of a voltaic battery by which the electric current leaves substances through which it passes, or the surface at which the electric current passes out of the electrolyte; the negative pole; -- opposed to anode.

Faraday.

Cathode ray Phys., a kind of ray generated at the cathode in a vacuum tube, by the electrical discharge<-- X-ray -->.

 

© Webster 1913.