Line wire generally connected to the bottom half of your switch. The black or red coming from the electrical panel is the line wire.
Remote Sense Connections
What is a load wire. On the other hand load refers to devices on the same circuit that are downstream of the one in question. Load wire generally connected to the top half of your switch. The term wire load is used in the realm of electronics and electrical circuitry. Those that carry power onward to other devices further along the circuit load. The load is the wire to the device that consumes the electricity. It is a reference used to describe the amount of signal a specific wire is able to withstand having sent through it.
The black or red wire going to the next outlet or light fixture is your load wire. If the wire is coming from the top of the switch box it is likely your load wire. A lamp a radio or the device where they can be powered by being plugged in. Basic information tells me from what you wrote is. In some cases a white wire will be a. In some cases line wires are marked with line pwr or a lightning bolt symbol.
Wire colors can vary between circuits so it is best to remove or turn off power sources before touching them. The load varies according to the length of the wire the thickness or gauge of the wire and the material that specific wire is made from. In the electrical trades the terms line and load are shorthand words that refer to the wires that deliver power from the source to a device line vs. When referring to an electric device that can be connected to another one such as a receptacle line refers to the wires feeding it from the panel which is upstream from the device in terms of the flow of electricity. In a circuit the main load wire the live power wire between the switch and power source is typically black and the secondary load wire is usually red.