industrial revolution

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noun

(sometimes initial capital letters) the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.

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Origin of industrial revolution

First recorded in 1840–50

Words nearby industrial revolution

industrial melanism, industrial misconduct, industrial park, industrial psychology, industrial relations, industrial revolution, industrials, industrial school, industrial sociology, industrial-strength, industrial tribunal

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use industrial revolution in a sentence

As machines and factories set the sound and rhythm of Europe, the industrial revolution and the inventions of audio recording and radio transmission added new dimensions to the use of noise in music.
Your Brain Is Like Beethoven - Issue 107: The Edge|Jonathan Berger|October 27, 2021|Nautilus
Colonialism and the industrial revolution created a global extraction economy with little regard for the natural systems that sustain all life.
The Loss of Trees Has Had Devastating Consequences. Here's How We Can Still Create a Sustainable Planet|Jeff Horowitz|September 21, 2021|Time
Addressing the housing shortage would “do more than any one thing to prevent the industrial revolution which threatens our country,” claimed one proponent of federal intervention.
The Supreme Court ended the eviction ban but not the fight against evictions|Maia Silber|September 9, 2021|Washington Post
“Not since the industrial revolution have managers and leaders had to think about work design,” says Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM chief human resources officer.
The risk of ‘faux flexibility’ in the post-COVID workplace|Beth Kowitt|November 16, 2020|Fortune

So this is 3000 times more impact than the industrial revolution.
COVID-19’s hit on holiday spending|Alan Murray|October 20, 2020|Fortune
What had been the greatest asset of the paperback revolution,” observes Rabinowitz, “became its greatest danger.
How Pulp Fiction Saved Literature|Wendy Smith|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
That Stone would slander the democratic, pro-Western, EuroMaidan revolution as a CIA coup is no surprise.
Oliver Stone’s Latest Dictator Suckup|James Kirchick|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The New York governor was the foremost Democrat to stand athwart the Reagan Revolution.
Mario Cuomo, a Frustrating Hero to Democrats, Is Dead at 82|Eleanor Clift|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In response, the April Revolution protests erupted in much of the country.
Propaganda, Protest, and Poisonous Vipers: The Cinema War in Korea|Rich Goldstein|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After the Iranian Revolution, discrimination took on a sectarian flavor.
The Dangerous Drug-Funded Secret War Between Iran and Pakistan|Umar Farooq|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
All over the world the just claims of organized labor are intermingled with the underground conspiracy of social revolution.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
He will tell you about the success he had in America; it quite makes up for the defeat of the British army in the Revolution.
Confidence|Henry James
He joined the army at the outbreak of the revolution, and continued in it until it was disbanded.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|Joel Munsell
A considerable proportion of the industrial and commercial news is now written to an end.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
It offers, to those who see it aright, the most perplexing industrial paradox ever presented in the history of mankind.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock

British Dictionary definitions for industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

noun

the Industrial Revolution the transformation in the 18th and 19th centuries of first Britain and then other W European countries and the US into industrial nations

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

The rapid industrial growth that began in England during the middle of the eighteenth century and then spread over the next 50 years to many other countries, including the United States. The revolution depended on devices such as the steam engine (see James Watt), which were invented at a rapidly increasing rate during the period. The Industrial Revolution brought on a rapid concentration of people in cities and changed the nature of work for many people. (See Luddites.)