A synchronous rotating electric machine includes an armature and a rotor. The armature has an armature coil wound on an armature core. The rotor has permanent magnets embedded in a rotor core so as to be spaced from one another in a circumferential direction of the rotor core. The rotor has a structure such that: the rotor core has yoke portions each of which is formed between one circumferentially-adjacent pair of the permanent magnets; and all of the permanent magnets are magnetized in the same magnetization direction along the circumferential direction of the rotor core so that for each circumferentially-facing pair of circumferential side surfaces of the permanent magnets, the polarities of the circumferential side surfaces of the circumferentially-facing pair are opposite to each other. With the above structure, flow of magnetic flux generated by the permanent magnets changes depending on whether electric current is flowing in the armature coil.