High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In electromagnetism, absolute permittivity is the measure of the resistance that is encountered when forming an electric field in a medium. In other words, permittivity is a measure of how an electric field affects, and is affected by, a dielectric medium. The permittivity of a medium describes how much electric field (more correctly, flux) is `generated` per unit charge. Less electric flux exists in a medium with a high permittivity (per unit charge) due to polarization effects. Permittivity is directly related to electric susceptibility, which is a measure of how easily a dielectric polarizes in response to an electric field. Thus, permittivity relates to a material`s ability to transmit (or "permit") an electric field.