internal combustion engine
noun
: 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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Norway's Deputy Transport Minister Cecilie Knibe Kroglund told CNBC last year that long-term and consistent policies designed to support the uptake of EVs — rather than imposing measures to ban the use of internal combustion engine vehicles — had been pivotal to the country's transition.
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Sam Meredith, CNBC, 2 Jan. 2026
Most automakers have been producing them for so long that the reliability of their hybrid models is frequently on par with their ICE (internal combustion engine) counterparts.
—New Atlas, 29 Dec. 2025
The nuclear reactor isn’t like an internal combustion engine.
—Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 29 Dec. 2025
For ordinary people, the physical paper is joining the pay phone, the cassette tape, the answering machine, the bank check, the sound of the internal combustion engine and the ivory-white pair of women’s gloves as objects whose disappearance marks the passage of time.
—Michael Weissenstein, Fortune, 28 Dec. 2025
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Sam Meredith, CNBC, 2 Jan. 2026
Most automakers have been producing them for so long that the reliability of their hybrid models is frequently on par with their ICE (internal combustion engine) counterparts.
—New Atlas, 29 Dec. 2025
The nuclear reactor isn’t like an internal combustion engine.
—Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 29 Dec. 2025
For ordinary people, the physical paper is joining the pay phone, the cassette tape, the answering machine, the bank check, the sound of the internal combustion engine and the ivory-white pair of women’s gloves as objects whose disappearance marks the passage of time.
—Michael Weissenstein, Fortune, 28 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for internal combustion engine
Cite this Entry
“Internal combustion engine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internal%20combustion%20engine. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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