What do you call these?
No seriously, I always get blank stares when I ask people, I've called them wall chargers or power bricks, my friend called them plug chargers, my fiancee calls them dongles. What do you call these around your house, like when you're asking someone if they've seen any (______)'s
255 replies
POWER ADAPTER
Mode: YF-W36-2U
Input: 100-240v~50/60Hz 0.35A
Output: 5V=2.4A Total
*Hey babe do we have any YF-W36-2U?"
"Sorry hon only 2E"
"Dammit"
I have a 2D
The D is for you babe...
"You're still flat? I told you if you can't get 3D, we're done!"
I think that pic was faked.
Wall voltage = 120V and Wavy.
Old USB = 5V and Not Wavy.
These adapt the two. They're also known as power supplies. The bricks in laptop cables are also power supplies, they can just handle more power. Modern high speed USB just has a whole conversation with the plug where they agree on whether to use Not Wavy 5V, 9V, 15V, or 20V.
Okay, but also:
Simple. "USB Power Adapter".
Top 2 are plug adapters (and probably power adapters too. I would call the bottom 3 power bricks, I guess the defining thing is bricks have a permanent cable.
those are all power adapters. they're just different ports to adapt. so bottom right is a dc power adapter, middle right is also a dc power adapter. top left is a global power adapter. top right is a power adapter with 2 usb a ports. bottom left is unknown since we don't know what the other end is.
GOT EM
wall warts
This is it, this is the one.
bricks
I second bricks. If it matters I'm in the southern US
Interesting, for us bricks refers to the rechargable portable USB power devices they sell. I don't even know how to describe them properly without calling them "bricks" or "power bricks".
Power bank would be the term or battery brick/bank if you wanted to meld both terms.
I think "brick" started because laptop chargers used to have the adapter like an actual brick (most still do).
Since phones can get away with smaller power cables, the brick got stuck onto the regular power socket.
And since they use(d) less juice, the brick isn't a brick anymore.
AFAIK batteries are power banks, but brick and bank sound alike so I guess it got lost in translation a bit.
How funny, I am in the south too.
Bricks, or brick for that lone loose one that pops up in mysterious places around the house. Seriously, who would ever just put it on the end of the banister?
Wall wart, but nobody knows what the fuck I’m talking about. “charger plug” is what those anround me expect to hear. So, that’s what I call them.
I also use "wall wart". I also don't know anyone else who calls them that.
I call them wall warts!
Does your room have Wall Warts? Get it checked for HPV today!
Same here, it seems to be the most common in tech circles online. I've never once said it and have someone understand. Not the meaning, nor the words.
How does this happen? I call them wall warts as well, and nobody around me does. I will follow up with "phone charger"
Power brick, power adapter, or USB charger are what come to mind for me.
I gotta say I disagree heavily with your fiancee on dongles. IMO dongles are adapters for data of some kind, not just power from the wall. But to each their own I guess.
The first time I heard the term dongle it was for the little adapter that connected to a PCMCIA card and I gave my buddy shit for using the term because I thought it sounded dumb. Then, on a trip to the local computer store an employee used the same term for the piece and I got to feel like the dumb one. Good times.
Yea, dongle is just objectively wrong.
USB chargers
50% of the time I would be handed a cable. Who knows what’s on the other end of it.
We call them Handyladegeräte, and I think that's beautiful
Had to check that out.
Handy = mobile phone
lade[n] = charge
geräte = devices
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Handy
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ladeger%C3%A4t
I sometimes also use Netzteil.
(Literally: Net thing. The net is the power grid)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle
I’m afraid dongle refers to something else.
But it is a funny word, though!
Not to be confused with yongle
Correct answer!
I've been forced to start calling these wall dongles by my fiancé, I made sure that in order to accept this terminology that wall warts with the cord attached are now dingle-dongles, and the ones with a cord before the electronics are dangle-dongles.
Wall Warts.
Had to scroll a bit to get to the correct answer.
Phone charger
But in the case of the ones in the pic, fire hazzard
Because they're made in the wrong part of China where no iPhones and Motorola are made? It's so hard to tell whether it's the west side of Shenzhen or the east side that is best. Are they gonna dance-fight over that?
Them Duke boys.
My stepkid had one of these exact ones. He pulled it out and the outside sleeve detached.
The internals on these are incredibly unsafe. There's a very high chance you can rip it out, and the tines will remain plugged in, with nothing to grab onto to remove them. The tines themselves are only pinched internally by a weak little bit of metal to connect to the rest of it, not even soldered.
Charger block/brick. I'm definitrly siding with you; "dongle" is a bit of a stretch for these.
It's not a stretch it's wrong. It's not a dongle at all
Exactly. Dongles dangle
I don't believe that's true either. A flash drive is a dongle isn't it
no
Gonna be honest my man I don't care, if my fiancee asks if I have a dongle I know what she means, even if it's wrong it would be silly to correct her and require she changes how she says it
Just asking for a dongle with no context is already kind of an issue. Unless this is the only thing she ever calls a dongle. It's like saying can you give me a piece of cutlery. What kind??
Again, I do not care, that's not something that matters in our relationship
Edit: I still don't care and now I'm going to start saying it when talking to her because all of your discomfort gives me joy
If you both know what you mean, that’s all that matters because that’s the entire point of language in that context. I don’t think it’s giving anyone discomfort though.
Power Adapter is too broad.
If someone asked me for one I wouldn't know what they wanted. It could be an international adapter, or a DC power supply, or one of these things.
I’m reading through the comments and pretty much I’ve heard them called all of them and I’ve called them most of them
Except a wall wart
USB power adapter
Clearly labeled power adapters
Fire hazards
AC adapters
USB charger
AC/DC-inator
Full Bridge Rectifier
"no not an iPhone charger, I need USB C"
"You know, Perry the Platypus, my patent for the AC-DC-inator paid for this building! Didja know that? Huh? ...no, you knew that, you knew. You're pretty good at your job, Perry the Platypus."
Last one doesn’t make sense any more, iPhones have been usb-c for a couple years now.
Most people I know still have lightning ones. You don't need a new phone every year
I think I'd call them "bad USB chargers"
All of that minus dongles. Never dongles!
Brick or Charger
Wall wart
“Charging block”
My favorite has always been "wall wart"
I honestly hate this term, but alas, I also say wall wart most of the time.
I don't know, but now I'm calling them wall warts because this community corrupts us, lol.
I'm gonna use this now as well. Thank you.
Wall Adapter
Charging block/brick
Phone Charger/Wall Charger
usb charger / usb wall plug / usb power adapter
drop the 'usb' when the context makes it obvious
Wall wart
I call them '..a brick, a power brick.. a charger, no, the part you plug..'. Lmao, I carry one of these, whatever its cursed name is, with me literally everywhere I go so I don't have to ask for the thing. I feel you sib.
See also: portable USB memory.
Edit: unless you need another thing! A power bank? 'This?' Taking out a brick. A usb-c cable? 'What?' Phone charger? 'This?' No, the cable.. thanks.. sorry this is usb-a I'm gonna need the brick as well.. 'the what?' Smh.
"Brick," or "charger brick." Sometimes "AC adapter."
If the transformer is in the same housing at the plug with a separate cable (as shown): wall wart.
If the DC cable is attached, it's a charger.
If it's housed in its own case, it's a power brick.
If there's no transformer it's a power lead, unless it's rated for over 10A, then it's a power cable.
Dongles are peripherals that are housed in the same casing as the host connector. Anyone who thinks they can power a device with a dongle is a dangerous sociopath.
This is a line lump, the alternative to the wall wart. Both were slang terms, it just sounds like only one of them stuck around.
There's plenty of dongles that have passthru power. At what point it becomes a dock though I'm not sure.
USB A/C adapter, or just "ac adapter".
This is my actual answer, also "wall adapter," but I really liked Ginny's "argly bargy cable chargie."
USB Charger
All of these work except "dongle". a dongle had a specific purpose in my day, some high end software wouldnt work without the dongle (a USB, serial or parallel device) plugged into the computer. Was an anti piracy device.
Wall wart or charging brick.
Wall wart gang!
Charging brick.
Unless I'm describing it in a system, then it's a full bridge rectifier :)
Charging Blocks
Dongle? That implies connection to a host computer.
Usually charger brick or just brick
Wall Warts
I generally think of these as "transformers", but I call it a power supply. Mostly folks look at me like a Labrador trying to do calculus, and say "You mean a power brick?"
When I was a kid I saw some model train stuff in boxes in our house storage and asked about it, my dad said we needed a transformer, unfortunately not the many Transformers I had in my toybox...we never got the power one but I always remember thinking we needed one to power trains for years. No idea what ever happened to them, now that I think of it I assume my Mom made sure we didn't have storage after a move, I always wanted to see those trains move.
USB chargers.
"Dongles" are wire to wire USB adapters for computers. Sound "cards", Ethernet adapters, video adapters.
Wall wart or power brick.
Adapter or charger. Rarely - power brick.
Ladegerät
Charger or Chargeur
I assume the second one is pronounced, as sharrzheurr?
No, it's simply pronounced 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓾𝓻 🥖
Nah, I'm only allowed to say that when it comes from the 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓾𝓻 region.
Otherwise it's just sparkling charger.
Can I have a Le Chargeur, please :)
I'm reading this comment with a French accent 😅
Hmmm... Quel est votre pourcentage?
Ehhhh...Il ne comprend pas? :p
YF-W36-2U
Though sometimes like to be more specific and say something like "hey can you grab the blue YF-W36-2U for me?"
"Eh, it's really more of a periwinkle."
wall warts
Wall Wart
Usb wall charger
I refuse any moniker for these besides bricks
It's only a brick if it's separated from both the outlet and the device it's powering by cables. Fight me.
🤔 you know I think you might be right. I'm going to continue calling it a brick it out of spite.
Spite is one hell of a motivator. Being hunted by hyenas is another. There's probably others, too.
Isn't that in itself a moniker?
Cubes.
Charger cube or charger box
I think just Charge Cube is what my wife and I call it.
In England, we call those argy-bargy-cable-chargies.
"Wall Warts"
I usually call them "those, uh, usb thingies" while pantomiming plugging one into the wall
Charge block.
USB charger or adapter
Stromziegel
"Charger" (lader) in general and more specific "block" (blokje)
When I was in college, we called these wall warts.
I'd call them USB adapters; "chargers" is probably slightly more common though never sat right with me since they can be used to power things other than charging.
Or more in the past we would call any kind of power adapters "transformers" but don't seem to hear that much any more.
Technically they are power supplies.
A transformer can be a power supply, but on it's own it can only transform AC power between two different voltages, so it can only be an AC:AC power supply. The number of windings on one side vs the number on the other, will determine the ratio of your voltage change.
But a pure transformer AC:AC power supply is not particularly efficient. A transformer's power rating is based on the overall number of windings it has, and on the power frequency.
So if you're lowering the voltage, it's more efficient to use mosfets to chop up your voltage at a very high frequency, then run that high frequency voltage through a smaller transformer.
And with DC power supplies, they not only need to lower voltage, but also smooth it out to a single unchanging value, and this results in an even more complex circuit where you first rectify the wave so that it's all on one side, then you chop it at high frequency then transform it, then smooth it out.
So transformers are still involved, but typically they're just one part of a larger whole with these.
Yeah, I'm sure you're right, my comment about transformers I guess was more about colloquial usage, i.e. rightly or wrongly we called DC power supplies transformers in the 90s. I also don't know how local that was, maybe it was just my family!
Power biscuit
Charging brick. Or, if an unmarked generic brand like the ones you've shown, Fire Hazard.
"wall block"
USB plug. Mine also has an Earth connection.
What?! Could you send a picture, I really don't see the point of earthing a USB charger?
.
are they called dongles because they dangle?
I guess so!
Dongles are historically not adapters but rather self contained devices that plug directly into another device. Often providing no function except to be detectable.
Isn't it a mobile charger?
USB charger.
USB wall adaptor
Wall block
usb wall plugs.
beat me to it.
My family calls them charging doots
Edit: or also sometimes “wall-to-usb adapters”
Wall block USB wall block
Most of the time, we just call it block , I’ve never heard of wall wart. Today I learned…
Charging brick. I don't think I've ever heard them called anything else besides a charger.
Charger.
USB charger
Adapters for upgrading your home’s firmware.
The Dingus. Wall wart. And a whole number of colorful names if I step on one with the prongs up, or roll my ankle on one in the dark!
USB chargers
Now that you make me think about it I think I've been calling them different names depending on what I intended to use them for, most of the time (I'm translating) I call them phone charger but I also called the power supply or usb power supply when I wanted to power something else.
Never thought about it.
Plugs?
It appears the manufacturers call them power adapters
Charging brick, or power adapter.
I can't think of a better term for these.
wall wart
I recently got odd looks for saying exactly this. I swear that’s what everyone where I live (Ohio, USA) USED to call them.
Wall warts are large transformer blocks that don't have an AC cable but rather have an integrated plug. Yes this is a transformer that plugs straight into the wall, but it's tiny. It's at most a wall pimple.
wall pimple it is then
USB adaptor
If context is unclear might add a "mains" or even "C" in the middle as needed.
Squares
The wonders of spanish
Charger block
USB-Power-Supply
Plug adapter - UK
USB bricks or USB chargers
Block
Switchmode power supply.
In my house, we call them butt plugs.
Better get that ED money ready, honey, because that flared base ain't right.
Everything you said was except for dongle. I absolutely would not accept that in my household.
Brick.
Charger or phone charger
Chakra, Charging brick, power adapter
cube or charging cube
jimmie
Standalone USB chargers. Or in Dutch I'd probably just call them USB -opladers.
The charger/phone charger. Since it's the most used charger it's just the default if we're not specific
usb cocks
USB charger ("usb-laddare"), also when they are used as a permanent transformer.
Wall charger or charger brick
Charger
Power dispenser
Block. As in, "is there a charger in here? No goddamn it I have my own cord I just need the block"
Fire hazard
Germany: Ladegerät
Translated: Charging device
Germany: Netzteil 😁
Otherwise PSU
I'd usually only call something 'Netzteil' in the context of computers and not devices primarily used with batteries in mind
Interesting! For me anything that goes into the socket (Stromnetz) is a Netzteil 😁.
Honestly it's a 50:50 for me.
But if I'd have to decide it's like that
Butt candy.
Charge box
Wall charger
Landfill
Charging (or charger) blocks, or just "chargers".
Phone block
When I'm speaking English, I think I call them USB-to-outlet-thingy. Otherwise it's almost, but not exactly a direct translation: USB-Stecker.
I think “cube” was an apple term for their chargers.
At one point we called them USB chargers. Nowadays, though, I just call them e-waste. Every thing I’ve bought for the last few years has been USB-C, and chargers for those usually come with a 10w type A port.
Block
A proper name would be an AC to DC adapter or a DC power supply.
Power block
Inkompatibel
Cable head
The thing that goes into the plug but without the wire
Charger block
Marshmallow
Egg.
USB wall-wart
shaboops
Fire hazards?
Don't order them from AliExpress.
"Thingie"
Or in my language -- "Negocinho".
A Negocinho and a Cabo ("a thingie and a cable") make a phone charger ("carregador de celular")
Ah! A Chingadera!
Pixels (or did you mean the photo? If so I call it a photo).
Charger
Up in the PNW we call em 'butts'
Iphone chargerBut off topic, but seemingly anything that can be used to charge an iphone of any era is
iphone chargerUSB Jacks.
Firestarter
Twisted
Wall block
When it is a product that I don't know what the general term is, I look it up on Wikipedia. Usually, the different names for the item are discussed right there in the introduction and often have pictures.
If I am not satisfied with that result, then I find the product on a shopping website, and see what it is called there or what category it is in. In order to sell it, customers have to find it, which is why this is an effective tactic.
LEGOs older brother.
Charger.
Latauspalikka
Power or charger boxes
"Charger" <- "Ładowarka" "Power adapter" <- "Zasilacz" (I am from Poland)
Fire starters
Twisted fire starter!
USB power supply
Phone pixie wrangler.
"That thing to connect USB to the outlet"
Wall to big USB.
Poopy diarrhea chargers
uhhh 'do you have a charger butt?' or 'hey, you got a buttplug? [while holding up my phone and shaking it] '
Cargador (Charger)
USB charger brick.
Butts. Seriously. But no one ever knows what im asking for, so then I say "the cube, the brick, the chargey part...with a usb please"
I don't think I made it up, but literally no one else ever seems to call them that, so idk where I heard it.
transformer (short for power transformer)
I think that's actually one of the official german words for it (Transformator - transformer), alongside Ladegerät - charging device, or Netzteil - grid part.
Poorly designed. British plugs are the best in the world.
I call those low quality crap made in China so that China has a better chance to bring us down by seizing to export this stuff.
Anything but China, please. Even Vietnam is a lot better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDrfE9I8_hs
Nobody has ever helped China as much as Trump has. In fact, he is the biggest friend China has ever had. The best. The awesomest. And the most modestest! Absolutely fabulous. (Really, nobody in the west has ever helped China gain as much influence as mr. Carrotface has.)
A funny video, but why did you link it?
Why the China video? You referenced China three times in three sentences. Grazing over the comments, I read
"... quality crap ... China ... China ... seizing ... China ... Even Vietnam!"
and so many mentions of China made me think of that China video.
How would you have expressed the same message? If English is your mother tongue, you can probably word things much better in English than I can.
I'm happy to edit the comment to make its English flow better!