fuel

See also: fül

English

Etymology

From Middle English fewell, from Old French fouaille, feuaille (“firewood, kindling”), from feu (“fire”), from Late Latin focus (“fire”), from Latin focus (“hearth”). Cognate with Spanish fuego (“fire”), and Portuguese fogo (“fire”). Doublet of focus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjuːəl/, /ˈfjʊəl/, /ˈfjuːl/
  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈfjuwəɫ] (some speakers)

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊəl

Noun

fuel (countable and uncountable, plural fuels)

1. Substance consumed to provide energy through combustion, or through chemical or nuclear reaction.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎^[1]:

     More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

2. Substance that provides nourishment for a living organism; food.
3. (figurative) Something that stimulates, encourages or maintains an action.

   His books were fuel for the revolution.

   Money is the fuel for economy.

   That film was nightmare fuel!

   • 2006 June 15, “Ammunition: the fuel of conflict”, in Oxfam International‎^[2]:

     Small arms ammunition is the fuel that keeps many of the world’s conflicts raging.

Derived terms

Terms derived from fuel

• add fuel to fire
• add fuel to the fire
• add fuel to the flame
• alternative fuel
• aviation fuel
• biofuel
• biological fuel cell
• bunker fuel
• caramel fuel
• e-fuel
• enzymatic fuel cell
• fossil fuel
• fuel cap
• fuel cell
• fuel cell vehicle
• fuel economy
• fuel filter
• fuel gauge
• fuel injection
• fuel load
• fuel molecule
• fuel-poor
• fuel poverty
• fuel pump
• fuel rod
• fuel station
• fuel tank
• fuel up
• hog fuel
• jet fuel
• microbial fuel cell
• nightmare fuel
• nuclear fuel
• patent fuel
• pour fuel on the fire
• solid fuel
• specific fuel consumption
• top fuel

 

Translations

substance consumed to provide energy

• Albanian: karburant (sq) m
• Arabic: وَقُود‎ m (waqūd)
• Armenian: վառելիք (hy) (vaṙelikʿ)
• Assamese: ইন্ধন (indhon)
• Azerbaijani: yanacaq (az)
• Bashkir: яғыулыҡ (yağıvlıq)
• Basque: erregai
• Belarusian: па́ліва n (páliva)
• Bengali: জ্বালানি (bn) (jalani), ইন্ধন (bn) (indhon)
• Bulgarian: го́риво (bg) n (górivo)
• Burmese: လောင်စာ (my) (laungca)
• Catalan: carburant m, combustible (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 燃料 (zh) (ránliào)

• Czech: palivo (cs) n
• Danish: brændstof n
• Dutch: brandstof (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: brulaĵo
• Estonian: kütus
• Finnish: polttoaine (fi)
• French: carburant (fr) m, combustible (fr)
• Georgian: საწვავი (sac̣vavi)
• German: Brennstoff (de) m (for a fire), Treibstoff (de) m (for an engine)
• Greek: καύσιμο (el) n (káfsimo)
• Hebrew: דֶּלֶק‎ (he) m (délek)
• Hindi: ईंधन (hi) m (īndhan), इंधन (hi) m (indhan)
• Hungarian: tüzelőanyag (hu), üzemanyag (hu)
• Icelandic: eldsneyti n
• Ido: fuelo (io), kombusteblajo (io), karburanto (io)
• Indonesian: bahan bakar (id)
• Interlingua: combustibile
• Irish: breosla (ga) m
• Italian: carburante (it) m, combustibile (it) m
• Japanese: 燃料 (ja) (ねんりょう, nenryō)
• Kazakh: отын (otyn), жанармай (kk) (janarmai)
• Khmer: ឥន្ធនៈ (km) (ʼənthĕəʼnĕəʼ), សមិន្ធន៍ (km) (saʼmɨn)
• Korean: 연료(燃料) (ko) (yeollyo)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: mazot (ku)

• Kyrgyz: отун (ky) (otun)
• Lao: ເຊື້ອໄຟ (lo) (sư̄a fai)
• Latvian: kurināmais m
• Lithuanian: kuras m
• Macedonian: гориво n (gorivo), огрев m (ogrev)
• Malay: bahan api (ms)
• Malayalam: ഇന്ധനം (ml) (indhanaṁ)
• Maori: kora
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: түлш (mn) (tülš)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: brennstoff (no) n, brensel (no) n, drivstoff (no) n

  Nynorsk: brennstoff n, brensel n, drivstoff n

• Oriya: ଇନ୍ଧନ (indhônô)
• Oromo: boba'aa
• Pali: indhana
• Pashto: بالڼ‎ m (bāláṇ)
• Persian: سوخت‎ (fa) (suxt)
• Plautdietsch: Brennstoff n
• Polish: paliwo (pl)
• Portuguese: combustível (pt) m
• Romanian: combustibil (ro) m, carburant (ro) m
• Russian: то́пливо (ru) n (tóplivo), горю́чее (ru) n (gorjúčeje)
• Sanskrit: इन्धन (sa) n (indhana), एध (sa) m (edha), समिन्धन (sa) n (samindhana)
• Scottish Gaelic: connadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: го̏рӣво n, огрев m, ^{(please verify)} паливо n, ^{(please verify)} топливо n

  Roman: gȍrīvo (sh) n, ogrev (sh) m, ^{(please verify)} palivo n, ^{(please verify)} toplivo n

• Sindhi: ٻارڻُ‎ (baarann-u)
• Sinhalese: ඉන්ධන (indhana)
• Slovak: palivo n
• Slovene: gorivo (sl) n
• Southern Altai: одырар неме (odïrar neme)
• Spanish: combustible (es) m
• Sundanese: suluh
• Swedish: bränsle (sv) n
• Tagalog: panggatong, pampasiklab, gatong
• Tajik: сӯзишворӣ (süzišvorī), сухт (suxt)
• Tatar: ягулык (tt) (yagulıq)
• Thai: เชื้อเพลิง (th) (chʉ́ʉa-pləəng), เชื้อไฟ (th) (chʉ́ʉa-fai)
• Turkish: yakıt (tr)
• Turkmen: ýag
• Ukrainian: па́ливо n (pályvo)
• Urdu: ایندھن‎ m (īndhan)
• Uyghur: يېقىلغۇ‎ (yëqilghu)
• Uzbek: yoqilgʻi (uz)
• Vietnamese: nhiên liệu (vi) (燃料 (vi))
• Volapük: filamastöf (vo)
• Welsh: tanwydd (cy) m
• Yiddish: ברענשטאָף‎ m (brenshtof)
• Zazaki: veşenek, veşenge

substance that provides nourishment

• Finnish: ravinto (fi)
• Greek: τροφή (el) f (trofí)
• Italian: rifornimento (it) m

figurative: something that stimulates

• Finnish: käyttövoima (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} gȍrīvo (sh) n
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} kuras m (1), ^{(please verify)} degalai m pl (2)

Verb

fuel (third-person singular simple present fuels, present participle (US) fueling or fuelling, simple past and past participle (US) fueled or fuelled)

1. To provide with fuel.
   • 1959 May, “Talking of Trains: By diesel m.u. to Moorgate”, in Trains Illustrated, page 235:

     The workings now employ ten twin-units, which are fuelled at Hornsey but return to Cambridge diesel depot for their weekly maintenance; [...].

2. To exacerbate, to cause to grow or become greater.

Usage notes

• Fuelled and fuelling are Commonwealth spellings. Fueled and fueling are US spellings and common in Canada.

Translations

to provide with fuel

• Bulgarian: зареждам (bg) (zareždam)
• Dutch: tanken (nl)
• Finnish: tankata (fi), täyttää polttoaineella
• German: betanken (de)
• Italian: rifornire (it)
• Polish: tankować (pl)
• Portuguese: abastecer (pt)
• Slovak: tankovať
• Turkish: doldurmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: заправля́ти impf (zapravljáty), запра́вити pf (zaprávyty)

to exacerbate, to cause to grow or become greater

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 加強／加强 (zh) (jiāqiáng), 激起 (zh) (jīqǐ), 刺激 (zh) (cìjī), 激化 (zh) (jīhuà)

• French: alimenter (fr), attiser (fr)
• German: anheizen (de), schüren (de)
• Italian: alimentare (it), fomentare (it)
• Portuguese: atiçar (pt), incitar (pt)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} לתדלק‎ (Le'tad'lek)

Anagrams

• flue, fule

French

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English fuel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjul/

Noun

fuel m (plural fuels)

1. Alternative form of fioul

Further reading

• “fuel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Noun

fuel

1. Alternative form of fewell

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English fuel.

Noun

fuel m (plural fueles)

1. fuel oil

Further reading

• “fuel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014