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• industrial revolution
  industrial revolution

  noun

  none the industrial revolution or the Industrial Revolution 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, such as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
• Industrial Revolution
  Industrial Revolution

  noun

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

industrial revolution

American  

[in-duhs-tree-uhl rev-uh-loo-shuhn] / ɪnˈdʌs tri əl ˌrɛv əˈlu ʃən /

noun

1. none the industrial revolution or the Industrial Revolution 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, such as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.

2. any period of change to the economic and social organization of a country, region, etc., that is characterized by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines and the concentration of industry in large establishments.

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Industrial Revolution British  

noun

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

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Industrial Revolution Cultural  

1. 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.)

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Etymology

Origin of industrial revolution

First recorded in 1840–50

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

industrial revolution Industrial Revolution

The digital revolution rocked the analog world of art, media and communication on a scale the industrial revolution did to agrarian and handicraft economies more than a century ago.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

"We can watch the next industrial revolution happen elsewhere or we can decide that Europe will shape it," he said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

One of the exhibition's central stories focuses on the peppered moth, which adapted during the industrial revolution by developing darker colouring to blend in with soot-covered buildings.

From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026

“From a macro perspective, the AI industrial revolution continues,” Thummel told MarketWatch.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026

We not only take it for granted—we tend to talk about the biologic revolution as though expecting to make profits from it, rather like a version of last century’s industrial revolution.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

“I suppose when I look through 250, 300 years since the Industrial Revolution, for every new technology, we’ve heard the same story of this being negative for jobs,” Reid said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

Inside, Altman rejected comparisons between the AI era and the Industrial Revolution.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

Price said Wales was "an energy giant at the Industrial Revolution with coal, but unfortunately we didn't see the benefit of that being derived largely by our own people".

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026

Before the Industrial Revolution, fortunes were based on land or trade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

Much as the Industrial Revolution changed the environment for moths, farming changed the environment for plants.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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