output

American  

[out-poot] / ˈaʊtˌpʊt /

noun

1. the act of turning out; production.

   the factory's output of cars; artistic output.

2. the quantity or amount produced, as in a given time.

   to increase one's daily output.

3. the material produced or yield; product.

4. the current, voltage, power, or signal produced by an electrical or electronic circuit or device.

5. Computers.

   1. information in a form suitable for transmission from internal to external units of a computer, or to an outside medium.

   2. the process of transferring data from internal storage to an external medium, as paper or microfilm.

6. the power or force produced by a machine.

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verb (used with or without object)

outputted, output, outputting

1. Computers. to transfer (information) from internal storage to an external medium.

2. to produce; turn out.

output British  

/ ˈaʊtˌpʊt /

noun

1. the act of production or manufacture

2. Also called: outturn.  the amount produced, as in a given period

   a high weekly output

3. the material produced, manufactured, yielded, etc

4. electronics

   1. the power, voltage, or current delivered by a circuit or component

   2. the point at which the signal is delivered

5. the power, energy, or work produced by an engine or a system

6. computing

   1. the information produced by a computer

   2. the operations and devices involved in producing this information See also input/output

7. (modifier) of or relating to electronic, computer, or other output

   output signal

   output device

   output tax

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verb

1. computing to cause (data) to be emitted as output

output Scientific  

/ out′pt′ /

1. The energy, power, or work produced by a system or device.

2. The information that a computer produces by processing a specific input.

3. Compare input device

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Other Word Forms

• superoutput noun

Etymology

Origin of output

First recorded in 1855–60; out- + put

Explanation

If your factory transforms steel into train wheels, your factory's output––what it produces––is train wheels. A country's output is the total quantity of goods it produces. The word input is the opposite of output, but only in the sense of the process––if bananas, milk, and ice cream are the input, the output is a milkshake. But you don't usually talk about input in the aggregate, as something you measure over time for a factory, a company, or a country.

Example Sentences

My creative output felt hindered, my concert calendar stale.

From Slate • Apr. 12, 2026

The Argentine, 21, is struggling to stand out among the cast at Stamford Bridge, having been linked with a transfer and drawing criticism for a lack of output in attack and switching off defensively.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

Early-year data showed stronger agriculture, but softer industrial output and retail activity, as well as resilient electronics production, ANZ noted.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

An attack at pumping station on the East-West Pipeline led to a loss of about 700,000 barrels of crude a day in output.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026

Esteban Trueba said when he saw his daughter’s output.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

Related Words

• amount
• crop
• gain
• harvest
• manufacturing
• product
• production
• productivity
• profit
• yield