Electronic describes anything that works by controlling the flow of electricity through special components like transistors, microchips, and circuits. Your computer, phone, and video game console are all electronic devices. They use tiny electrical signals moving through complex pathways to process information, display images, play sounds, and connect to the internet.

Electronic devices are different from simple electrical ones. A light bulb is electrical because it just uses electricity to produce light. But a calculator is electronic because it uses electricity in a more sophisticated way: to perform calculations, remember numbers, and display results.

Before electronic devices existed, people used mechanical machines with gears, levers, and springs. The first electronic computers in the 1940s filled entire rooms but couldn't do as much as the phone in your pocket today. Since then, engineers have learned to make electronic components incredibly small. Modern microchips contain billions of transistors, each one smaller than a speck of dust, all working together to run apps, play videos, and help you learn.

When something goes electronic, it means it switches from an older method to using electronic technology, like when libraries moved from paper card catalogs to electronic databases.