WATT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Watt mean? 

• WATT (noun)
  The noun WATT has 2 senses:

1. a unit of power equal to 1 joule per second; the power dissipated by a current of 1 ampere flowing across a resistance of 1 ohm

2. Scottish engineer and inventor whose improvements in the steam engine led to its wide use in industry (1736-1819)

  Familiarity information: WATT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A unit of power equal to 1 joule per second; the power dissipated by a current of 1 ampere flowing across a resistance of 1 ohm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

W; watt

Hypernyms ("watt" is a kind of...):

power unit (a measure of electric power)

Meronyms (parts of "watt"):

milliwatt (a unit of power equal to one thousandth of a watt)

Holonyms ("watt" is a part of...):

kilowatt; kW (a unit of power equal to 1000 watts)

H.P.; horsepower; HP (a unit of power equal to 746 watts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Scottish engineer and inventor whose improvements in the steam engine led to its wide use in industry (1736-1819)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

James Watt; Watt

Instance hypernyms:

applied scientist; engineer; technologist (a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems)

artificer; discoverer; inventor (someone who is the first to think of or make something)

 Context examples 

We were returning from the Watt Street Mission about a quarter to nine o’clock.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A non-SI unit of energy defined by the Fifth International Conference on the Properties of Steam, London, 1956, as 1/860 x international watt hour or joule, or to 4.1868 joules exactly.

(International Steam Table Calorie, NCI Thesaurus)

“Egad, Doctor,” returned Mr. Wickfield, “if Doctor Watts knew mankind, he might have written, with as much truth, “Satan finds some mischief still, for busy hands to do.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is the luminous intensity in a given direction of a small monochromatic light source at 540 terahertz emitting 1/683 watt per steradian in that direction.

(Candela, NCI Thesaurus)

What does Doctor Watts say, he added, looking at me, and moving his head to the time of his quotation, Satan finds some mischief still, for idle hands to do.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mrs. Barclay was, it appears, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and had interested herself very much in the establishment of the Guild of St. George, which was formed in connection with the Watt Street Chapel for the purpose of supplying the poor with cast-off clothing.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)