In this paper， the dielectric spectra of ZnO varistor ceramic were measured by Novocontrol wide band dielectric spectrometer in the temperature range of -100 ℃—20 ℃ and frequency range of 10-2—106 Hz. It is found that the activation energy is 0.26 and 0.36 eV， respectively. After careful analysis of the measurement conditions， quantitative calculation results and other phenomena， three relaxations of cathode electron injection， dipole polarization and interface polarization are discarded. Thermally stimulated current（TSC） has three peaks， of which the higher temperature peak comes from thermionic polarization introduced by TSC itself， and other two peaks correspond to the characteristic loss peaks in dielectric spectra. Therefore， it is concluded that the characteristic loss peaks of ZnO ceramics originate from electronic relaxation of intrinsic defects.