horsepower
Americannoun
-
a foot-pound-second unit of power, equivalent to 550 foot-pounds per second, or 745.7 watts.
-
Informal. the capacity to achieve or produce; strength or talent.
The university's history faculty is noted for its intellectual horsepower.
noun
-
an fps unit of power, equal to 550 foot-pounds per second (equivalent to 745.7 watts)
-
a US standard unit of power, equal to 746 watts
Discover More
The horsepower is used to measure the power of engines.
This term was coined by James Watt, who invented a new type of steam engine in the eighteenth century. Watt found that the horse could do a certain amount of work per second; when he sold his steam engines, this measurement allowed him to estimate the worth of an engine in terms of the number of horses it would replace. Therefore, a six-horsepower engine was capable of replacing six horses.
Etymology
Origin of horsepower
Compare meaning
How does horsepower compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
"What we've done is taken two of our 74 horsepower engines from our construction machines, we've laid them on their side and we've turned the power up," Lee Harper, chief engineer at JCB, explained.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Founded in 1952 by British engineer Colin Chapman, Lotus gained worldwide renown for sporty cars that outgunned the competition with lighter weight over outright horsepower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
Demand may also need time to catch up with that extra datacenter horsepower, while macro cycles are still an important consideration.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
Mercedes-Benz unveiled its AMG GT four-door coupe, a high-end EV with 1,153 horsepower and a zero to 60 mph time of about two seconds.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
John Glenn weighed only 186 pounds, but we needed one-quarter million pounds of rocket fuel with thrust equal to 3.5 million horsepower to lift him into space and get him safely home again.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
