Wankel engine

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noun

an internal-combustion rotary engine that utilizes a triangular rotor that revolves in a chamber (rather than a conventional piston that moves up and down in a cylinder): it has fewer moving parts and is generally smaller and lighter for a given horsepower.

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Also called Wankel.

Origin of Wankel engine

Named after F. Wankel

Words nearby Wankel engine

waning, waning moon, wanion, wank, Wankel, Wankel engine, wanker, Wankie, wanksta, wanky, wanna

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Wankel engine in a sentence

The jet engine instantly brought two advances over propellers: it doubled the speed and it was far more reliable.
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An F-35 was destroyed on takeoff earlier in the year when a design flaw in its Pratt & Whitney F135 engine sparked a fire.
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Texas has also started to become an engine of economic growth.
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Clearly, the least cool people are the most in-demand: the rich folks who power the Art Basel engine.
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They not only disrupted service in China, they apparently crashed the search engine worldwide.
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It was only the engine drawing the train of cars up to the station to take the passengers away.
Squinty the Comical Pig|Richard Barnum
“Mon pauvre petit, you are hungry,” said Aristide, carrying it to the car racked by the clattering engine.
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Adjoining the engine-house on the other side, is the stable, where five splendid horses are kept.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham|Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
The huge engine, the wonderful carriages, the imposing guard, the busy porters and the bustling station.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland|Joseph Tatlow
He hired an engine to plow all his land that was not prepared, besides renting a little more, and also took a flier in wheat.
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British Dictionary definitions for Wankel engine

Wankel engine

/ (ˈwæŋkəl) /

noun

a type of four-stroke internal-combustion engine without reciprocating parts. It consists of one or more approximately elliptical combustion chambers within which a curved triangular-shaped piston rotates, by the explosion of compressed gas, dividing the combustion chamber into three gastight sections

Word Origin for Wankel engine

C20: named after Felix Wankel (1902–88), German engineer who invented it

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