How Many Terms for the Neutral Conductor does the NEC Need?

The National Electrical Code (NEC) is a vast and complex document. Even electrical engineers and electrical inspectors who spend most of their working hours inside the book will argue against anyone having a perfect understanding of these critically important standards.

This “imperfect understanding” of such an important document is caused by a number of factors related to any document whose contents are decided by committee, but we can squarely take aim at Article 100 “Definitions” as the starting point for much of the confusion. After all, why is it that after 100 years of Code you still have to look at the Handbook Commentary to understand many of the definitions?

For Grounding Engineers, Article 250 of the National Electrical Code (NEC) is our primary area of concern. Yet in just that one Article, only 29 pages long, the Code uses at least four (4) different terms to identify the neutral conductor!

The short summary here does not attempt to list specific examples, as the goal is to simply give you an overview of the bewildering array of “neutral conductor” terminology that is used in the Code and how the terms are intermixed, for your informational purposes.

Article 250 of the Code uses at least four (4) different terms to describe the neutral wire:

1. **Neutral Conductor** – 250.20, 250.26, 250.36, 250.162, 250.166, 250.184, 250.187, and more 2. **Grounded Conductor** – 250.24, 250.30, 250.34, 250.102, 250.186, and more 3. **Grounded Circuit Conductor** – 250.24, 250.30, 250.32, 250.134, 250.140, 250.142, 250.186 4. **Ground Fault Circuit Conductor** – 250.186 (2014 Edition only)

_Special Note: The term “common conductor” which also refers to the neutral conductor can be found outside of Article 250 here:_

1. **_Common Conductor_** _– 310.15, 400.5, Table 430.249, 610.14_

Fortunately, the 2014 edition of the Code has removed the term "common conductor" from Article 250.26 (2011 edition). Unfortunately, in Article 250.186 (new in 2014), the Code decided to add the term "ground fault circuit conductor" instead of just calling it a neutral conductor (the old 250.186 was changed to 250.187). Fortunately, in 2017 the Code removed the term. With that said, the differing neutral conductor terminology is fairly easy to straighten out, unlike the jumper terminology. But that is for another blog in the future...

First, there are a few terms we should understand:

**BOTH Current-Carrying, and Normally-Non-Current Carrying:**