Is there a difference between a choke, a reactor, and an inductor?

Question

I've seen all three of these terms used interchangeably. But once when I did so, I was told I was using one of the terms incorrectly. Are these terms, in fact, equivalent? Or are there differences between them?

Answer 1

While all 3 refer to the same type of component, an inductor, their usage is application specific.

reactor An electromagnetic device, the primary purpose of which is to introduce inductive reactance into a circuit.

inductor A device consisting of one or more associated windings, with or without a magnetic core, for introducing inductance into an electric circuit.

choke coil An inductor used in a special application to impede the current in a circuit over a specified frequency range while allowing relatively free passage of the current at lower frequencies.

Answer 2

My take is that they essentially refer to the same elementary component (the inductor), but in a different configuration or called differently in different applications (meaning they can be optimised differently). I can't tell for reactor VS inductor as I rarely saw the former but I suspect they are exactly the same thing as they should both bring a certain amount of reactance to the signals proportional to said signals frequencies (the imaginary term of impedance, resistance being the real term). As for the chokes, they usually are two inductors packaged together in a 4 terminal component (wound in opposite directions on the same core) that you can use directly on your lines to block high frequency and common mode AC.

The picture illustrates inductors (2 terminals) and chokes (4 terminals)

Note: I'm not a fan of the term reactor, as a reactor could also be a capacitor. It can bring the same amounts of reactance as an inductor, but at different frequencies.