1. In medicine, a method of stimulating an excitable tissue; such as, a nerve or muscle, by applying a short electrical current and the immediate effects resulting from such stimulation.
2. A traumatic physical state caused by the passage of electric currents through the body.
3. The sudden pain, convulsion, unconsciousness, or death produced by the passage of electric current through a body.
4. Injury from electricity that varies according to the type and strength of current and length and location of the contacts.

It usually involves an accidental contact with exposed parts of electric circuits in home appliances and domestic power supplies; however, it may also result from lightning or contact with high-voltage wires.

Electric shocks range from trivial burns to complete charring and destruction of skin. They may also cause unconsciousness from paralysis of the respiratory center, fibrillation of the heart, or both depending on the intensity of the electric current, the type of current, and the duration and the frequency of the current flow.

Alternating current (AC), direct current (DC), and mixed currents cause different kinds and different degrees of damage to the body.

Burns and the loss of consciousness are a couple of the symptoms of electrical injury.

A gas-filled tube used in plasma physics to suddenly ionize a gas.

A capacitor bank charged to a high voltage is discharged into the gas at one tube end to ionize and heat the gas, producing a shock wave that may be studied as it travels down the tube.