What is voltage exactly?
I want to to know exactly what voltage IS, not really what it's LIKE.


It is a mathematical construct, created as part of a mathematical model of things observed. It turns out to be a useful mathematical model.

Aside from being something that behaves as the mathematical model predicts, no-one knows what voltage "really" is. No one knows whether it is even meaningful to ask.

You may find this situation unsatisfactory. You would not be alone. Unfortunately, our need for a certain type of explanation is insufficient cause for such an explanation to exist.

We observe that there are forces in our world. We give them names like gravity or magnetic-attraction. As Richard Feynman noted, giving things names does not do anything at all to explain them or understand them.

To explain what voltage is the only language available is mathematics.




  in terms of electric fields and charges, what exactly is voltage


There are some answers in Physics.Stackexchange which might be useful:


What is voltage?
Explain voltage