output

American  

[out-poot] / ˈaʊtˌpʊt /

noun

outputs plural

1. the act of turning out; production.

   the factory's output of cars; artistic output.

2. the quantity or amount produced, as in a given time.

   to increase one's daily output.

3. the material produced or yield; product.

4. the current, voltage, power, or signal produced by an electrical or electronic circuit or device.

5. Computers.

   1. information in a form suitable for transmission from internal to external units of a computer, or to an outside medium.

   2. the process of transferring data from internal storage to an external medium, as paper or microfilm.

6. the power or force produced by a machine.

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verb (used with or without object)

outputs, present (3rd person singular) output, past participle, past outputted, past participle, past outputting present participle

1. Computers. to transfer (information) from internal storage to an external medium.

2. to produce; turn out.

output British  

/ ˈaʊtˌpʊt /

noun

1. the act of production or manufacture

2. Also called: outturn.  the amount produced, as in a given period

   a high weekly output

3. the material produced, manufactured, yielded, etc

4. electronics

   1. the power, voltage, or current delivered by a circuit or component

   2. the point at which the signal is delivered

5. the power, energy, or work produced by an engine or a system

6. computing

   1. the information produced by a computer

   2. the operations and devices involved in producing this information See also input/output

7. (modifier) of or relating to electronic, computer, or other output

   output signal

   output device

   output tax

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verb

1. computing to cause (data) to be emitted as output

output Scientific  

/ out′pt′ /

1. The energy, power, or work produced by a system or device.

2. The information that a computer produces by processing a specific input.

3. Compare input device

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• superoutput
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• outputs
  plural

Participles

• outputting
  present
• output
  past
• outputted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• output
  simple
• outputs
  simple
• have output
  perfect
• have outputted
  perfect
• has output
  perfect
• has outputted
  perfect
• am outputting
  progressive
• are outputting
  progressive
• is outputting
  progressive
• have been outputting
  perfect progressive
• has been outputting
  perfect progressive

Past

• output
  simple
• outputted
  simple
• had output
  perfect
• had outputted
  perfect
• was outputting
  progressive
• were outputting
  progressive
• had been outputting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will output
  simple
• will have output
  perfect
• will have outputted
  perfect
• will be outputting
  progressive
• will have been outputting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of output

First recorded in 1855–60; out- + put

Explanation

If your factory transforms steel into train wheels, your factory's output––what it produces––is train wheels. A country's output is the total quantity of goods it produces. The word input is the opposite of output, but only in the sense of the process––if bananas, milk, and ice cream are the input, the output is a milkshake. But you don't usually talk about input in the aggregate, as something you measure over time for a factory, a company, or a country.

Example Sentences

Output could grow by just 1.3% under a scenario in which an extended blockage of the Strait of Hormuz helped trigger a sharp fall in equity prices and a steep rise in bond yields.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026

Output among Gulf producers fell by 35% in April from a year earlier to a more-than decade low, according to the International Aluminium Institute, an industry group.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

Output is high and unemployment is low by historical standards.

From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026

Output rose eight percent last year to more than 890,000 metric tons and the government aims to triple production within a decade.

From Barron's • Feb. 15, 2026

Ratio of Output to the Mine Determination of possible maximum; limiting factors; cost of equipment; life of the mine; mechanical inefficiency of patchwork plant; overproduction of base metal; security of investment.

From Principles of Mining Valuation, Organization and Administration by Hoover, Herbert

Related Words

• amount
• crop
• gain
• harvest
• manufacturing
• product
• production
• productivity
• profit
• yield