gigawatt

noun

giga·​watt ˈji-gə-ˌwät How to pronounce gigawatt (audio) ˈgi- How to pronounce gigawatt (audio)
: a unit of power equal to one billion watts

Examples of gigawatt in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Margolin believes that the company’s advantage lies in being an early mover, with 5 gigawatts of turbines already on order, along with access to land and natural gas supply needed for power generation and data center development. Tipranks.com Staff, CNBC, 24 May 2026 California’s bet on offshore wind is important to its climate goals, aiming for 25 gigawatts by 2045, but federal actions raise risks for the floating turbines in deep waters. Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2026 Span hopes to eventually scale the network to more than one gigawatt of capacity. Vanessa Bates Ramirez, Scientific American, 22 May 2026 Google Cloud will provide 5 gigawatts of compute capacity over five years. Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026 See All Example Sentences for gigawatt

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1962, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of gigawatt was circa 1962

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Gigawatt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gigawatt. Accessed 31 May. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster