steam engine

What does steam engine mean?

steam engine means "external-combustion engine in which heat is used to raise steam which either turns a turbine or forces a piston to move up and down in a cylinder".

Is steam engine a common word?

steam 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.

Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for steam engine come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.