Electrical Receptacle Terms

Neutral, hot, ground, and other common electrical receptacle terms

Home electrical safety is first and foremost about understanding how electricity works. To do so, you'll need to know the various electrical receptacle terms that are used when talking about home electrical appliances. This brief glossary of electrical receptacle terms will provide you with a few basic definitions of commonly used electrical words:

Circuit

An electrical circuit is a closed path or route that conducts an electrical current. An electrical circuit is a closed loop, which means that electricity is always on a return trip, so to speak.

When a home appliance is plugged into an electrical receptacle, the electricity flows through the hot wire and into the appliance and then back through the neutral wire into the electrical panel and from there into the ground.

Neutral

The neutral prong on an electrical plug is the larger of the two parallel prongs and fits into the larger slot of the electrical receptacle. Modern electrical receptacles have been built like this so appliances can be plugged in only in one way. As a safety precaution, the switch to the appliance is placed in the hot lead so that no voltage will be reaching it when it's turned off. This is known as a polarized electrical receptacle.

On non-polarized electrical receptacles that accommodate neutral and hot prongs of equal size, the hot wire could be on either side, meaning the appliance's on/off switch could be in the neutral leg. In such cases, an electrical appliance could still be hot, and therefore present a shock hazard even when it's turned off.

Hot/live

The hot or live prong on an electrical plug is the smaller of the two parallel prongs and fits into the smaller slot of the electrical receptacle.

Ground

The ground prong is the third round prong beneath the two slender parallel prongs on an electrical plug. It's placed there as a safety feature on the plugs of electrical appliances that are encased in metal.

If an appliance's hot were ever to touch this external metal, an electrical current could flow through it and into your body before going to ground. Instead, the ground is connected to the external metal so that if the hot were to short, it would blow the fuse rather than shock you.

GFCI

GFCI stands for ground-fault circuit interrupter. A GFCI immediately shuts off a circuit if it senses an electrical short. The electrical receptacle of a GFCI appears similar to a standard receptacle except it has a reset button in the middle. When constructing new homes, GFCI electrical receptacles are required in bathrooms, kitchens, outdoors and any place susceptible to moisture. A GFCI is frequently mounted as the first receptacle along a circuit (between the electrical panel and other receptacles on the same circuit), automatically protecting the others on the same line.

Duplex

Duplex is the common term for electrical receptacles that can accept two plugs. Single, triplex, and quad are the names used for electrical receptacles that can accommodate 1, 3, and 4 plugs respectively.

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