external-combustion engine
- noun
- Specialized
:
motor de combustión externa
- Many steam locomotives operated using an external combustion engine that utilized coal to produce power.
Examples
-
All of these men worked with external combustion engines.
Academic text (2007) -
One of my fascinations is the external combustion engine, which, to the Greenies' dismay,
Blog text (4) -
The external combustion engine was developed to improve efficiency by burning fuel outside the engine's cylinder.
-
In agriculture, farmers often use an external combustion engine to generate electricity for various machines.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A machine that uses fuel to make power for cars or machines
1
5.0
A machine that uses heat to make movement or power
Antonyms
- Specialized
11
4.5
A machine that burns fuel inside to make power to move a car or plane
Surface Forms
Morphology
external-combustion + engine
The meaning is directly compositional: 'external' = outside, 'combustion' = burning, and 'engine' = machine, so an engine where burning happens outside the cylinder is directly derivable from the parts. Although the term is technical and 'combustion' may be less familiar to some B1 learners, if they know the constituent words the overall meaning is predictable and cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
External-combustion engine comes from the simple image that the word combustion means burning and that this burning happens 'outside' the main moving parts of the engine, for example in a boiler that makes steam. So, the name tells us it is an engine where fuel is burned away from the working parts and the heat is used to make power.