Other forms: energies
Energy is what makes everything move, shine and heat up. Full of energy, energy bill, renewable energy.
In physics it is the capacity to do work, measured in joules, and it can change form but never be created or destroyed. In everyday use it means personal vigour: no energy today, full of energy. In politics and economics, energy means the fuel and electricity supply. Note energetic; and that the word is Greek for being at work, coined for its physical sense only in 1802.
1nounenergyThe capacity to do work, in physics.
“Solar panels turn the sun's energy into electricity.”
2nounpersonalPersonal vigour.
“The children have so much energy that they never want to go to bed.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
energy is a capacity or vigour.
Greek energeia means activity — en plus ergon, work. Ergonomics, surgery and organ come from the same work, and the physics sense was coined by Thomas Young in 1802.
Latin
energīa
Middle French
énergie
English, today
energy
Built from
From Middle French énergie, from Latin energīa. From Middle French énergie, from Latin energia, from Ancient Greek ἐνέργεια (“activity”), from ἐνεργός (“active”), from ἐν (“in”) + ἔργον (“work”). The sense in physics was coined by Q25820 in 1802 in his lectures on Natural Philosophy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA