steam engine

noun

: an engine driven or worked by steam

specifically : a reciprocating engine having a piston driven in a closed cylinder by steam

Examples of steam engine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Montana, a 235-foot side-wheel steamer that sank in 1914, sits in 66 feet with her boiler and three-story steam engine still standing. — Stacy Conde, Midwest Living, 10 Aug. 2026

Named for 19th-century economist William Stanley Jevons, the phenomenon originally referred to his observation of coal consumption skyrocketing in 1865, despite the Watt steam engine making coal use more efficient. — Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2026

In the eighteenth century, while Russia fixated on conquering Eurasia, Britain developed the steam engine; in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while Europeans fought over Africa, Americans mastered the assembly line. — Evan Osnos, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026

As the steam engine once transformed manufacturing by unlocking scalable mechanical power, AI has the potential to reshape R&D in a similarly fundamental way. — Han Hendriks, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1751, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

steam engine

noun

: an engine driven by steam