| Type of energy | Description |
| Mechanical | the sum of macroscopic translational and rotational kinetic and potential energies |
| Electric | potential energy due to or stored in electric fields |
| Magnetic | potential energy due to or stored in magnetic fields |
| Gravitational | potential energy due to or stored in gravitational fields |
| Chemical | potential energy due to chemical bonds |
| Ionization | potential energy that binds an electron to its atom or molecule |
| Nuclear | potential energy that binds nucleons to form the atomic nucleus (and nuclear reactions) |
| Chromodynamic | potential energy that binds quarks to form hadrons |
| Elastic | potential energy due to the deformation of a material (or its container) exhibiting a restorative force as it returns to its original shape |
| Mechanical wave | kinetic and potential energy in an elastic material due to a propagating oscillation of matter |
| Sound wave | kinetic and potential energy in a material due to a sound propagated wave (a particular type of mechanical wave) |
| Radiant | potential energy stored in the fields of waves propagated by electromagnetic radiation, including light |
| Rest | potential energy due to an object's rest mass |
| Thermal | kinetic energy of the microscopic motion of particles, a kind of disordered equivalent of mechanical energy |
Discussion