Do you call it a ''cell'' or a ''battery''?

[WildChild]

In french there is even more confusion. Usually people threat everything as a "batterie" (battery). But if we speak in technical terms, a single cell should be called "pile" if it is not rechargeable, "accumulateur" if it is rechargeable and "batterie" is used for 2 or more "piles" or "accumulateurs".

 

[CM]

I'm a purist. If I am referring to a single "battery", I call it a "CELL. If they're in packs, I call it a battery. If they give me a strange look when I call it a cell, I keep right on going. If they're curious, they'll stop and ask and I'll oblige.

 

[Bearcat]

To me a battery can be made-up of one cell or multiple cells. It is a battery of cells to me. A 9 volt battery has six cells and a C-cell battery has only one cell. It may not be correct, but it sounds better than calling a battery a cell, because it only has one cell.

 

[Eugene]

I call it what my grandfather always did, a batry

 

[Sub_Umbra]

I try to only call it a battery if it contains more than one cell, although sometimes I may use 'battery' on purpose in place of 'cell' in writing if I've already used cell a fistful of times in one post and I get tired of using the same word over and over.

 

[Illum]

preferably cell

when someone mentions "battery" first things that come my mind is a bunker, missile silo, and getting heavily beaten by something

 

[dulridge]

Tend to use battery - most folk don't know what a cell is and assume I'm talking biology or prison. As in "How many prisoners does this torch hold?" People get confused. Our politicians who seem to be keen on imprisoning more people than ever before might just like the idea

While I'm well aware of the distinction and more than a little of a pedant, life is too short for some distinctions, and this is one of those. If I live to be 500 years old, life will still be too short.

I am no longer a teacher (Thank deity of choice!) so don't have to care about such distinctions any more.

 

[dulridge]

I have some AA Lithiums I'd like to cell !

How much?

 

[abvidledUK]

How much?

I'll work out a price and post here, and in Sell section. I'll pm you first offer.

I currently have a few packs of 4 AA Lithiums, Energizer e2 Lithium, dated 2021 !!

 

[Newuser01]

Out of circle of folks that are familier with electronic, Cell really don't fly. Call it a AA battery ,Cr123 camera battery or Car Battery is better in general.

My 2 lumens.

 

[Long John]

In German language is a batterie always a primary cell while a cell is both, primary and recheargeable

Best regards

____
Tom

 

[Erasmus]

I usually use the word battery for as well a cell as a battery. I think it's because the Dutch word for cell is 'batterij'.

 

[Alin10123]

hmmm... what if you call it a "battery cell?" LOL

 

[billw]

I usually call cells batteries, just to match common usage. "Cell" can mean a lot of other
things of course. "It doesn't work cause the cells are dead" ??!! (are we talking
a flashlight or a biological organism?)

But I never call a battery a cell...

 

[chesterqw]

the term battery was made popular by energizer/eveready(yes, this is how you spell it).

 

[The_LED_Museum]

What about when somebody says or writes something like "three D cell batteries"?

 

[EngrPaul]

As common language goes, it's never incorrect to call a cell a battery.

Webster's
Battery
a group of two or more cells connected together to furnish electric current; also: a single cell that furnishes electrical current

TheFreeDictionary
Battery - Electricity
a. Two or more connected cells that produce a direct current by converting chemical energy to electrical energy.
b. A single cell, such as a dry cell, that produces an electric current.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

What about when somebody says or writes something like "three D cell batteries"?

They probably work for the Firesign Theatre's 'Department of Redundancy Department.'

 

[drizzle]

I call it a lens :nana:

 

[Christexan]

I'd say 3 D-cell batteries is perfectly correct, although technically annoying.

At the most basic level as mentioned, a "cell" is a chemically active construction capable of delivering current with a voltage differential. It could be a pool of chemicals with anodes, cathodes, separators, etc, but this wouldn't be very useful in application...
A battery (in my opinion) is the useful combination of cell components into a coherent self-contained portable (definition of portable may vary, but something that can be safely transported by some physical means without excess care taken (for instance, no worries about sloshing your chemicals out of their vats)) package which is usable on it's own or in combination with other batteries. Each battery may consist of multiple cells, or be a single cell packaged on it's own, so long as it's usable independently.
A collection of independently usable batteries, packaged together in a fashion which can be separated without permanent damage to any of the individual batteries is a battery pack (for instance soldering tabs together and shrinkwrapping, can be unsoldered/cut apart and shrink wrap sliced open, and the batteries (of one or more cells each) can be used freely).
A collection of batteries permanently joined together in a fashion that cannot be non-destructively separated I would also consider a battery, not a battery pack. For instance if you take 2 marine 6V lead acid batteries, and use a plastic welding glue to mate them solidly together, that is now a 12V (or 6V 2x capacity) battery on it's own (consisting of 6x2V cells, or 2x6V cells, depending on perspective, but at the base level it's the 2V cells that are chemically independent of each other that I consider the "cell".
For instance, using the first "vat of chemicals on a bench", you cannot package 2 chemical vats together and maintain discrete properties, or make them portable and usable (other than wiring them together on the bench as separate entities, which makes them batteries of a sort, but since they aren't really usable in a portable sense, that doesn't fit batteries (might as well plug into the mains in that case).

Portable is a bit subjective, but if you can use a crane to load a 20kv 10kAh battery pack into a submarine without harming the batteries and no additional care needs to be taken in operation (other than preventing extreme stresses obviously) then it's portable... if you can't risk bumping the table or tilting the container without damaging the structure, it's not in my opinion portable, and therefore not a battery.