I hear these words used interchangeably. I just want to make sure that I’m using them correctly.
From my understanding:
• When I think of cable, I think of a coaxial cable, although it can refer to any wire or wires enclosed in a casing.
• I think of a lead as a cable with identical connectors (or plugs) on both ends, for example jump leads or a guitar lead (although you have extension leads, which don’t have identical ends). It can also refer to the connecting wires in a circuit.
• A flex is a cable attached to an electrical appliance, and plugs into a wall socket.
What part of the world are you in?
In the US, a cable is any (usually multi-conductor) wire.
A lead is archaic usage, and not generally heard. Except for “clip leads” perhaps.
A flex is never used as a noun, but might be used as an adjective (flex cable is a particular type of cable, used for hinged connections).
A flex (noun) in British English is basically what the U.S. calls a power cord or in some cases an electrical cable. Flex cable in the U.S. has a different meaning.
Brits also use lead where us Yanks use different words. What a Brit would call a guitar lead we would call a guitar cable. A British extension lead is an American extension cord. Jump leads are jumper cables in the U.S.
A cable is generally two or more conductors bound together somehow. It’s not necessarily coaxial. A computer ribbon cable is flat, for example. Cables do not need to have identical ends.
“Flex” in the US usually means “zip cord”, the two conductor cable or wires used by electrical devices, lamps, speakers. One can pull them apart like opening a zipper.
“Leads” usually means terminating wires, “connect these leads to the battery”, but I’d know what you were speaking about if you said, “The leads going to the lamp”.
If I heard “zip cord”, without further context (say, “Could you bring me a few zip cords from the truck?”), I’d assume it meant the same as “zip ties”, a bit of plastic with teeth and a ratchet at one end, so you can wrap it around something and pull it tight.
I’d consider it very old usage. Way back in the 70s, when everybody starting buying good stereo systems, one faction called for wiring speakers with the most expensive cables stores sold and the other said that ordinary electrical wire, or zip cord, would work just as well. I never heard zip cord used in any context other than speaker wire.
Yeah, ‘zip cord’ is a slightly technical term that the average person wouldn’t encounter. A common two conductor power cord wouldn’t be called a ‘zip cord’, the term refers to just the type of two conductor wire with the separable insulation that is often used in power cords.