megawatt

American  

[meg-uh-wot] / ˈmɛg əˌwɒt /

noun

Electricity.

1. a unit of power, equal to one million watts. MW

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megawatt British  

/ ˈmɛɡəˌwɒt /

noun

1.  MW.  one million watts

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megawatt Cultural  

1. A unit of power: one million watts. A typical large electrical generating plant can produce a thousand megawatts of electricity.

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Etymology

Origin of megawatt

First recorded in 1895–1900; mega- + watt

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

megawatt

Costs for large-scale solar projects increased to an average of $69 per megawatt hour, up from $58 last year, according to Lazard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The August 2026 TTF contract was trading at a premium of around 1.75 euros a megawatt hour to winter 2026 on Monday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Firmus partnered with Nvidia for an eight-year deal to build a 360 megawatt AI facility, procuring up to 170,000 GPUs.

From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026

But unlike in Virginia, Texas, Ohio and other states where residents are fighting 400-plus megawatt hyperscaler facilities in their backyards, California has some major barriers keeping data centers at bay.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026

And then that megawatt smile that belonged on cereal boxes across the nation reappeared.

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray