flywheel

American  

[flahy-hweel, -weel] / ˈflaɪˌʰwil, -ˌwil /

noun

Machinery.

• flywheels
  plural

1. a heavy disk or wheel rotating on a shaft so that its momentum gives almost uniform rotational speed to the shaft and to all connected machinery.

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flywheel British  

/ ˈflaɪˌwiːl /

noun

1. a heavy wheel that stores kinetic energy and smooths the operation of a reciprocating engine by maintaining a constant speed of rotation over the whole cycle

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• flywheels
  plural

Etymology

Origin of flywheel

First recorded in 1775–85; fly ² + wheel

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flywheel flywheels

It argued that going private would provide insulation from volatile quarterly earnings releases, or that Mattel could be plugged into another company’s established distribution flywheel, avoiding the costly effort of building one from scratch.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

“Taken together, our brand flywheel is working,” Niccol said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Speaking of distribution, the next critical element of the company’s flywheel strategy was discovered by accident!

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Whilst these devices are designed for longer term space missions, the recent Artemis II mission around the moon took a specially developed exercise device called the flywheel.

From BBC ● May 22, 2026

Then he swung a flywheel round and round, and with a bit of luck, after a lot of coughing and spluttering, the thing would finally get going.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

Images on social media purport to show one of the chairlift's flywheels off it's spoke.

From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2025

Just know that its serrated flywheels can be harsh on darts.

From The Verge ● Jul. 11, 2022

Above all, Freed loved Amazon’s focus on spinning its flywheels faster, and finding new markets where they could whirl.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 10, 2019

Excess solar energy will be stored via flywheels housed in a communal building.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 14, 2017

It grew louder, angrier, and suggested the high-velocity spin of flywheels or electric turbines turning at impossible speed.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan