An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that makes rapid automatic bristle motions, either back-and-forth oscillation or rotation-oscillation (where the brush head alternates clockwise and counterclockwise rotation), in order to clean teeth. Motions at sonic speeds or below are made by a motor. In the case of ultrasonic toothbrushes, ultrasonic motions are produced by a piezoelectric crystal. A modern electric toothbrush is usually powered by a rechargeable battery charged through inductive charging when the brush sits in the charging base between uses.

Electric toothbrushes can be classified according to the frequency (speed) of their movements as power, sonic or ultrasonic toothbrushes, depending on whether they make movements that are below, in or above the audible range (20–20,000 Hz or 2400–2,400,000 movements per minute), respectively.