internal combustion engine
nounDefinition of internal combustion engine
: a heat engine in which the combustion that generates the heat takes place inside the engine proper instead of in a furnace
Examples of internal combustion engine in a Sentence
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Tesla can take credit for proving to the world that electric cars can be fun, and faster than their internal combustion engine competitors. — Jack Stewart, WIRED, "Pininfarina's Back With a $2 Million Electric Hypercar," 14 July 2018 The car is a sporty hybrid, combining a conventional internal combustion engine to drive the front wheels, and electric motors at the back. — Jack Stewart, WIRED, "The Engineers Turning an Old Volvo Concept Into a $155,000 Hybrid," 18 June 2018 Similarly, several decades later, the introduction of tetraethyl lead into gasoline raised environmental concerns, but was tolerated as a necessary lubricant for the adoption of the internal combustion engine. — New York Times, "A History of the Energy We Have Consumed," 18 June 2018 What's bad for the owner of vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines could actually be good for tech, which has bet big on electrification. — Eric Newcomer, latimes.com, "Why Silicon Valley doesn't mind rising gas prices," 6 July 2018 What makes the feat even more interesting around Ars is that the car in the record books is all-electric, marking perhaps the first time in major motorsport that a battery electric vehicle has beaten the internal combustion engine fair and square. — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, "7:57:148—Volkswagen makes racing history with record-breaking electric race car," 29 June 2018 Add to that cities or even whole countries talking about banning sales of cars powered by internal combustion engines: Norway (by 2025), India (by 2030), France and the UK (2040). — Jack Stewart, WIRED, "Even More Evidence That Electric Cars Could Save the Planet," 15 Mar. 2018 Electric vehicles drive differently than those powered by an internal combustion engine. — Matthew Scott, Outside Online, "The Electric Jaguar I-Pace Can Go Off-Road," 9 July 2018 His appeal comes a day after Sweden's Volvo became the first major automaker to pledge to stop making cars and SUVs powered solely by the internal combustion engine. — Tribune Wire Reports, chicagotribune.com, "France plans to phase out gas and diesel engines," 6 July 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'internal combustion engine.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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