Turbine
nounA rotary engine in which a moving fluid such as steam, water, gas, or wind drives blades on a shaft to produce power.
How to spell turbine
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce turbine
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does turbine mean?
- nounA rotary engine in which a moving fluid such as steam, water, gas, or wind drives blades on a shaft to produce power.
Turbine in a sentence
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The wind turbine on the hill generates enough electricity for several homes.
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Engineers shut down the steam turbine for routine maintenance.
Where does turbine come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word turbine comes from the Latin turbo (stem turbin-), which meant a spinning top, a whirlwind, or anything whirling in a circle. The French mining engineer Claude Burdin coined the modern term around 1822 when he proposed it for a competition to design an improved water wheel, drawing directly on that Latin idea of rapid rotation. English adopted the word soon after as the rotary engines spread through industry in the nineteenth century. The same turbo root spins on in everyday words like turbulent, meaning full of restless whirling motion, and in turbo itself, the booster that whirls air into an engine. Remembering that the heart of the device is a thing that turns and whirls helps fix the spelling: turbin- then a final silent e.
How the word is built
- turbin- (from Latin turbo, turbinis: spinning top, whirlwind)
- -e
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