horsepower
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See also: horse-power and horse power
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
horse + power: the unit was originally defined as the amount of power that a horse could provide.
Both non-metric and metric units of power were derived from effectively identical measurements of the power a draught horse could sustain over several hours, with the difference in watts solely due to different rounding errors to express that power in round numbers in the original non-SI units (ft·lbf/min and kgf⋅m/s respectively).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (General American) enPR: hôrsʹpou'ər, IPA(key): /ˈhɔɹsˌpaʊɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hôsʹpou'ə, IPA(key): /ˈhɔːsˌpaʊə/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun[edit]
horsepower (countable and uncountable, plural horsepowers or horsepower)
- (uncountable) Power derived from the motion of a horse.
- 2003, Gavin Weightman, What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us, page 57:
- The wheel was to have been turned by horsepower, but it was adapted to be driven by a mill-wheel on the river Derwent […]
- A nonmetric unit of power (symbol hp) with various definitions, for different applications. The most common of them is probably the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts.
- 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: A Very Short Introduction (309), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, chapter 2: “The age of gravity – time for work”, page 20:
- In the past, before the widespread adoption of SI units, the work that engines were capable of doing was compared with the work that horses could do – hence the term ‘horsepower’. Various people came up with various equivalencies, but the modern agreed definition is that 1 horsepower is 746 joules per second or 746 watts.
- 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: A Very Short Introduction (309), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, chapter 2: “The age of gravity – time for work”, page 20:
- A metric unit (symbol often PS from the German abbreviation), approximately equal to 735.5 watts.
- (uncountable) Strength.
- political horsepower
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
non-metric
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metric
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strength
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Anagrams[edit]
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- en:Units of measure