engineer
Americannoun
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engineers
plural
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a person trained and skilled in the design, construction, and use of engines or machines, or in any of various branches of engineering.
a mechanical engineer; a civil engineer.
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a person who operates or is in charge of an engine.
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Also called locomotive engineer. Railroads. a person who operates or is in charge of a locomotive.
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a member of an army, navy, or air force specially trained in engineering work.
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Digital Technology. a person skilled in the design and programming of computer systems.
a software engineer;
a web engineer.
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a skillful manager.
a political engineer.
verb (used with object)
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engineers,
present (3rd person singular)
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engineered,
past participle, past
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engineering
present participle
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to plan, construct, or manage as an engineer.
He's engineered several big industrial projects.
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to design or create using the techniques or methods of engineering.
The motor has been engineered to run noiselessly.
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to arrange, manage, or carry through by skillful or artful contrivance.
He certainly engineered the election campaign beautifully.
noun
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a person trained in any branch of the profession of engineering
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the originator or manager of a situation, system, etc
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a mechanic; person who repairs or services machines
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the driver of a railway locomotive
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an officer responsible for a ship's engines
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Informal name: sapper. a member of the armed forces, esp the army, trained in engineering and construction work
verb
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to originate, cause, or plan in a clever or devious manner
he engineered the minister's downfall
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to design, plan, or construct as a professional engineer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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engineersimple
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engineerssimple
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have engineeredperfect
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has engineeredperfect
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am engineeringprogressive
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are engineeringprogressive
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is engineeringprogressive
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have been engineeringperfect progressive
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has been engineeringperfect progressive
Past
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engineeredsimple
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had engineeredperfect
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was engineeringprogressive
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were engineeringprogressive
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had been engineeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of engineer
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; engine + -eer; replacing Middle English engin(e)our, from Anglo-French engineor, Old French engigneor, from Medieval Latin ingeniātor, from ingeniā(re) “to design, devise” (derivative of ingenium “nature, innate quality, mental power, clever invention”; engine ) + Latin -tor -tor
Explanation
An engineer is someone who possesses the knowledge or expertise to create and implement plans or build machines. Even if you're not an engineer, when you engineer you make plans and solve problems. An interesting part of the word engineer is the suffix -eer, which turns a word into one that means someone who does something indicated by the base it is affixed to — a mountaineer climbs mountains, an auctioneer presides at auctions, an engineer designs, coming from the Old French engin, which means "skill or cleverness." If you want to become an engineer, you'll have to study all kinds of mechanical systems, not just engines.
Vocabulary lists containing engineer
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An engineer who placed an order was working with a contractor who was in touch with an Armstrong sales rep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Robia and her colleague Jojo are the DIY creations of Pakistani engineer Syed Osama Aziz, who is bringing a sci-fi reboot to Karachi's storied dining scene.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
But the project's lead engineer, Wes Morrill, appeared to suggest the vehicle was being discontinued, writing on X: "Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab."
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
“Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab,” Cybertruck’s lead engineer Wes Morrill wrote in a response to Musk’s post on X.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
After that, he fought in the American Civil War & became a Navy engineer.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
The startup now employs two engineers and a staffer for marketing, and they work out of the living room of Bhatia and Vij’s San Francisco two-bedroom apartment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
Huang founded Nvidia with fellow electrical engineers Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem in 1993.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
Traditionally, engineers have addressed this problem in two ways.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2026
OpenArt was founded in 2022 by former Google engineers Mao and John Qiao.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
The engineers, Burnham charged, “had contributed little or nothing either in the way of originating novel features or of showing the possibilities of modern engineering practice in America.”
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
His team has been exploring ways to use specially engineered plants to produce proteins with potential medical benefits.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2026
To overcome these limitations, the MIT team investigated whether NK cells could instead be engineered "in vivo," meaning directly inside the body.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2026
If successful, the technology could make engineered immune cell treatments considerably more accessible by replacing a lengthy laboratory manufacturing process with the direct delivery of genetic instructions through nanoparticles.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2026
This system will allow doctors to administer repeated doses of the engineered immune cells without requiring a new surgical procedure each time.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2026
That he’d been engineered so he couldn’t feel pain or fear.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
The pictures are a paean to contemporaneous engineering but also include examples of ancient constructions for comparison.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026
"The open question is cost" as "training on Chinese chips usually takes more time and more engineering".
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026
Other directors include an engineering professor who advised President Joe Biden, the National Football League’s former marketing chief, a former pharmaceutical-company executive and four professional investors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Other major food retailers including Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also hit by the attack, which targeted software provided by Danish engineering firm Danfoss.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
Padva’s costumes and Mr. Barris’s feats of engineering are obvious, the mark of the Burgess sisters is more subtle, though it permeates almost every aspect of the circus.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
