output

1 of 2

noun

out·​put ˈau̇t-ˌpu̇t 

1

: something produced: such as

a

: mineral, agricultural, or industrial production

steel output

b

: mental or artistic production

literary output

c

: the amount produced by a person in a given time

d

: power or energy produced or delivered by a machine or system (as for storage or for conversion in kind or in characteristics)

generator output

solar X-ray output

e

: the information produced by a computer

2

: the act, process, or an instance of producing

3

: the terminal for the output on an electrical device

output

2 of 2

verb

outputted or output; outputting

transitive verb

: to produce as output

Synonyms

Noun

• affair
• fruit
• handiwork
• labor
• produce
• product
• production
• thing
• work
• yield

Examples of output in a Sentence

Noun

stars with large energy outputs

The computer's output is shown on this screen.

outputs of up to 400 watts

the television's video and audio outputs

Verb

Computers output data very quickly.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Ukraine’s government says the plants will supply 4.5 gigawatts of power this winter, a third of the country’s prewar output, according to the United Nations. —Constant Méheut, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023

Its two sets of banana plugs on the back give you two channels of passive stereo output, and a subwoofer connection rounds that out. —Wes Davis, The Verge, 22 Nov. 2023

In a video interview released along with the cover story, the drummer also sung his praises of McCartney’s work ethic and credited him for the amount of celebrated output that The Beatles released during their time as a group from 1962 to 1970. —Sadie Bell, Peoplemag, 21 Nov. 2023

Another of Silverman’s main theories — along with other creators suing AI firms – was that every output produced by AI models are infringing derivatives, with the companies benefiting from every answer initiated by third-party users allegedly constituting an act of vicarious infringement. —Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2023

Slowing demand but rising factory output is likely to produce more discounts, Krebs said. —CBS News, 18 Nov. 2023

While its output isn't perfect, its ability to quickly combine cultural references across the scope of human history already feels superhuman. —Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 16 Nov. 2023

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its expectations for global oil demand this year, saying that weak sentiment is exaggerated and that the economy is more resilient than originally appeared, as the group’s own output crept higher. —Yusuf Khan, WSJ, 13 Nov. 2023

Intellectual property laws likely don’t account for this unless an actor’s facial features or identity is incorporated in the output. —Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Nov. 2023

Verb

But there is already an event camera called DAVIS that outputs both frames and events between the frames. —IEEE Spectrum, 3 Oct. 2023

In the latter, an influential public key encryption algorithm developed in 1982 by Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali hinges on multiplying two large primes p and q together and outputting the result, N, along with a number, x, which is not a square modulo N. —Quanta Magazine, 1 Nov. 2023

The software also outputs a line of best fit, which describes the general trend of your data in the line below. —Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 7 Sep. 2023

That means building out multiple, smaller systems—perhaps one image generator that outputs animals and another that creates images of humans and switching between them depending on the user prompt. —Paresh Dave, WIRED, 24 Aug. 2023

The companies developing these models sometimes try to scrub personal information from training data or block models from outputting it. —WIRED, 17 Oct. 2023

One idea was to compute all the possible circle packings that contain two arbitrary curvatures A and B. Rickards wrote a program that outputs a sort of ledger that reports which integers show up to the party when A is hosting. —Quanta Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023

If your charging adapter can output that, that's great. —WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023

Sheng said the city of Gretna could be an exception to this because of its smaller size and dedicated water treatment plant, which outputs 4 million gallons of water a day to around 17,000 people. —Rachel Ramirez, CNN, 27 Sep. 2023

See More

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1841, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1858, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

output

1 of 2 noun

out·​put ˈau̇t-ˌpu̇t 

1

: something produced: as

a

: agricultural or industrial production

steel output

b

: mental or artistic production

writing output

c

: the amount produced by a person in a given time

d

: power or energy delivered or produced by a machine or system

light output of the sun

e

: the information produced by a computer

2

: a point at which something (as power, an electronic signal, or data) comes out

output

2 of 2 verb

outputted or output; outputting

: to produce as output

Medical Definition

output

noun

out·​put ˈau̇t-ˌpu̇t 

: the amount of energy or matter discharged usually within a specified time by a bodily system or organ

renal output

urinary output

see cardiac output