Engine

How to spell engine

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce engine

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does engine mean?

1. nounA machine that converts fuel or energy into mechanical motion or power.
2. nounA system or force that powers or drives something, such as software or an economy.

Engine in a sentence

• The mechanic warned that the engine was burning oil.

• Manufacturing remains the engine of the regional economy.

• A warning light appeared whenever the engine overheated.

• The developers built the game on a new graphics engine.

Where does engine come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Engine descends from the Latin ingenium, which literally meant 'inborn quality', 'natural talent', or 'cleverness', built from in- ('in') and the root gen- ('to produce or give birth to'). In medieval Latin and Old French the word engin came to mean a clever device or contrivance, especially an ingenious military machine for hurling stones or breaking down walls. English borrowed it in the 1200s, at first meaning skill, cunning, or a crafty trick, and only later settling on a physical machine. The same gen- root sits inside 'ingenious' and 'genius', which is a useful reminder that an engine was once thought of as a product of clever ingenuity. The spelling kept the soft -gine ending from its French route, even though the modern pronunciation no longer hints at that ancestry.

How the word is built

• en- (from Latin in-, 'in')
• gen (root meaning 'to produce, give birth to')
• -ine (noun ending)