Carnot

American  

[kahr-noh, kar-noh] / kɑrˈnoʊ, karˈnoʊ /

noun

1. Lazare Nicolas Marguerite 1753–1823, French general and statesman.

2. (Marie François) Sadi 1837–94, French statesman: president of the Republic 1887–94.

3. Nicolas Léonard Sadi 1796–1832, French physicist: pioneer in the field of thermodynamics.

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Carnot British  

/ ˈkɑːnəʊ, karno /

noun

1. Lazare ( Nicolas Marguerite ) (lazar), known as the Organizer of Victory . 1753–1823, French military engineer and administrator: organized the French Revolutionary army (1793–95)

2. Nicolas Léonard Sadi (nikɔlɑ leɔnar sadi). 1796–1832, French physicist, whose work formed the basis for the second law of thermodynamics, enunciated in 1850; author of Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu (1824).

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Carnot Scientific  

/ kär-nō′ /

1. French physicist and engineer who founded the science of thermodynamics. He was the first to analyze the working cycle and efficiency of the steam engine according to scientific principles. Through his experiments Carnot developed what would become the second law of thermodynamics and laid the foundation for work by Kelvin, Joule, and others.

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Example Sentences

The Carnot principle, which later became part of the second law of thermodynamics, was formulated for large-scale systems such as steam turbines.

From Science Daily • Jan. 22, 2026

Because of this added contribution, such machines can generate more work than classical theory allows, meaning the efficiency of a quantum engine can exceed the traditional Carnot limit.

From Science Daily • Jan. 22, 2026

Yet lowering the bar to 16, as Belgium did for these elections, shows improvement, Carnot said.

From Seattle Times • May 29, 2024

Instead, they gathered on the edge of the city, on the Boulevard Carnot.

From Seattle Times • May 21, 2023

After all, Sadi Carnot finally produced a satisfactory theory of the steam engine only in 1824, more than a hundred years after Newcomen’s first engine, and sixty years after Watt’s.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton