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• watt
  watt

  noun

  the standard unit of power in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one joule per second and equal to the power in a circuit in which a current of one ampere flows across a potential difference of one volt. W, w.
• Watt
  Watt

  noun

  James, 1736–1819, Scottish engineer and inventor.

watt

¹ American  

[wot] / wɒt /

noun

• watts
  plural

1. the standard unit of power in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one joule per second and equal to the power in a circuit in which a current of one ampere flows across a potential difference of one volt. W, w.

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Watt ² American  

[wot] / wɒt /

noun

1. James, 1736–1819, Scottish engineer and inventor.

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Watt ¹ British  

/ wɒt /

noun

1. James. 1736–1819, Scottish engineer and inventor. His fundamental improvements to the steam engine led to the widespread use of steam power in industry

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watt ² British  

/ wɒt /

noun

1.  W.  the derived SI unit of power, equal to 1 joule per second; the power dissipated by a current of 1 ampere flowing across a potential difference of 1 volt. 1 watt is equivalent to 1.341 × 10 ^–3 horsepower

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watt ¹ Scientific  

/ wŏt /

1. The SI derived unit used to measure power, equal to one joule per second. In electricity, a watt is equal to current (in amperes) multiplied by voltage (in volts).

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Watt ² Scientific  

1. British engineer and inventor who patented a much improved version of the steam engine (1769) and devised the unit of horsepower. The watt unit of power is named for him.

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watt Cultural  

1. The basic unit of power, named after the eighteenth-century Scottish inventor James Watt.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• watts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of watt

First recorded in 1882; named after J. Watt

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

watt Watt watts

But if AWS monetizes its business at $12 per watt, that would yield $1 trillion in revenue as early as 2035.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026

Qualcomm introduced Dragonfly C1000, a data-center processor that the company says delivers more than twice the performance per watt of competing server chips.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

Early tests show that the chip will deliver performance per watt “substantially better” than current state-of-the-art chips, they added.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

Measurements revealed a responsivity of 2.7 amperes per watt.

From Science Daily ● May 31, 2026

Keeping it on would eat up 9800 watt hours per day.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

Brewdog, which was founded in 2007 by friends James Watt and Martin Dickie, had four breweries and about 100 pubs across the world at its peak.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

Watt isn’t just filling in for Tony Romo during his leave—he’s auditioning to be CBS’s top NFL game analyst.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Chairman Willie Watt called the losses "painful" but said the bank had learned lessons.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Then in 1781 James Watt patented a rotary steam engine that could turn a shaft and thus power a factory.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

Black later collaborated with Watt and invested in his new engine.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Other essentials, such as the kettle which needs 3 kilowatts of electricity, will be powered through a mix of the 800 watts flowing from the panel with the rest coming from the national grid.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

As that plutonium supply steadily diminishes, each spacecraft loses about 4 watts of available power every year.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

"Lu-An" has some 2,000 plastic cylinders of soil and compost to give 100 watts of output, enough to power a rice cooker and other appliances.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

The motor had a peak output of 5,000 watts, well beyond the 750-watt legal ceiling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2026

One hundred watts isn't enough to keep the heater going, but I don't care about the electrical output.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir