internal-combustion engine

1. 1.

   a heat engine in which combustion occurs inside the engine rather than in a separate furnace; heat expands a gas that either moves a piston or turns a gas turbine

   SynonymsICE

   Broaderheat engine

   Narrowerdieselfour-stroke enginegas enginegasoline engineoutboard motorradial enginereciprocating enginerotary enginevalve-in-head engine

   Part ofmotorboatmotor vehicle

   Partsengine blocklubricating systempoppetself-startersupercharger

Questions about internal-combustion engine

What does internal-combustion engine mean?

internal-combustion engine means "a heat engine in which combustion occurs inside the engine rather than in a separate furnace; heat expands a gas that either moves a piston or turns a gas turbine".

What is another word for internal-combustion engine?

Close synonyms include ICE. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is internal-combustion engine a common word?

internal-combustion engine is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.