unit of electrical resistance, 1867, in recognition of German physicist Georg S. Ohm (1789-1854), who determined the law of the flow of electricity. Originally proposed as ohma (1861) as a unit of voltage. Related: ohmage; ohmic; ohmeter.
ohm (ōm)
n.
Symbol Ω
A unit of electrical resistance equal to that of a conductor in which a current of one ampere is produced by a potential of one volt across its terminals.
The unit of electrical resistance, named after the nineteenth-century German physicist Georg Ohm.
abbreviation Omega, unit of electrical resistance in the metre-kilogram-second system, named in honour of the 19th-century German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. It is equal to the resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere (1Omega = 1 V/A); or, the resistance in which one watt of power is dissipated when one ampere flows through it. Ohm's law (q.v.) states that resistance equals the ratio of the potential difference to current, and the ohm, volt, and ampere are the respective fundamental units used universally for expressing quantities.