Did you know?
The oldest and simplest form of turbine is the waterwheel, which is made to rotate by water falling across its blades and into buckets suspended from them. Hero of Alexandria invented the first steam-driven turbine in the 1st century A.D., but a commercially practical steam turbine wasn't developed until 1884; steam turbines are now the main elements of electric power stations. Jet engines are gas turbines. A turbojet engine uses a turbine to compress the incoming air that feeds the engine before being ejected to push the plane forward; a turboprop engine uses its exhaust to drive a turbine that spins a propeller. A wind turbine generates electricity by being turned by the wind; the largest now have vanes with a turning diameter of over 400 feet.
Examples of turbine in a Sentence
Debra Utacia Krol, USA TODAY, 5 Nov. 2024
And as ridiculously massive as this turbine is, there's every chance it'll soon be dwarfed by others even bigger.
—New Atlas, 23 Oct. 2024
Turbine size has increased from 2MW and is on a trajectory to see turbines larger than 20MW in the 2030s.
—Mark Le Dain, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
The limited edition features a giant 3-D skull on the lower dial, with a 12-blade turbine that spins above it in spectacular fashion.
—Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 27 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for turbine 
Dictionary Entries Near turbine
Cite this Entry
“Turbine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turbine. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
turbine
noun
from French turbine "turbine," from Latin turbin-, turbo "top (for spinning), whirlwind"
Share