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

The gold miner’s 1Q output and costs both beat consensus, while Newmont also upgraded its buyback.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

The more output there is, the greater the pressure there will be on prices to fall.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 28, 2026

Morgan Stanley’s economists tell Wilson output per employee is picking up, especially in industries with a high exposure to AI.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 27, 2026

Fuel-importing countries are already shortening workweeks, cutting output, and hoarding commodities.

From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026

Father Antonio greeted an old woman who was standing by the fountain waiting for her pail to fill with the pathetic output of the faucet.

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

Related Words

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