horsepower

horsepower

See also: horse-power and horse power

English

Etymology

horse +‎ power: the unit was originally defined as the amount of power that a horse could provide.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: hôrsʹpou'ər, IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹsˌpaʊɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hôsʹpou'ə, IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːsˌpaʊə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

horsepower (countable and uncountable, plural horsepowers or horsepower)

1. (uncountable) Power derived from the motion of a horse.
   • 2003, Gavin Weightman, What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us (page 57)

     The wheel was to have been turned by horsepower, but it was adapted to be driven by a mill-wheel on the river Derwent […]

2. A nonmetric unit of power (symbol hp) with various definitions, for different applications. The most common of them is probably the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts.
   • 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: A Very Short Introduction (309), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, chapter 2: “The age of gravity – time for work”, page 20:

     In the past, before the widespread adoption of SI units, the work that engines were capable of doing was compared with the work that horses could do – hence the term ‘horsepower’. Various people came up with various equivalencies, but the modern agreed definition is that 1 horsepower is 746 joules per second or 746 watts.

3. A metric unit (symbol often PS from the German abbreviation), approximately equal to 735.5 watts.
4. (uncountable) Strength.

   political horsepower

Synonyms

• hp

Derived terms

• brake horsepower
• equivalent shaft horsepower
• horsepower-hour
• hydraulic horsepower
• mechanical horsepower
• shaft horsepower
• thermal horsepower

 

Translations

non-metric

Belarusian: ко́нская сі́ла f (kónskaja síla) Bulgarian: ко́нска си́ла f (kónska síla) Chinese: Mandarin: 馬力／马力 (zh) (mǎlì) Chuvash: лаша вӑйӗ (laš̬a văjĕ) Czech: koňská síla f Danish: hestekraft c Dutch: (mechanische) paardenkracht (nl) Esperanto: ĉevalpovo Estonian: hobujõud (et) Faroese: hestakraft f Finnish: hevosvoima (fi) Georgian: ცხენის ძალა (cxenis ʒala) German: Pferdestärke (de) f Hungarian: (gépi) lóerő (hu) Indonesian: tenaga kuda (id), daya kuda (id) Irish: each-chumhacht f Italian: cavallo vapore (it) m Japanese: 馬力 (ja) (ばりき, bariki) Khmer: ហយពល (haʼyĕəʼpŭəl), អស្វឫទ្ធិ (ʼahsvaʼrɨt) Korean: 마력(馬力) (ko) (maryeok) Latvian: zirgspēks m Lithuanian: arklio galia m Macedonian: коњска сила f (konjska sila) Malay: kuasa kuda Malayalam: കുതിരശക്തി (ml) (kutiraśakti) Norwegian: Bokmål: hestekraft (no) m or f Nynorsk: hestekraft f Plautdietsch: Pieetskrauft f Polish: koń parowy m Portuguese: cavalo-vapor (pt) m Romanian: cal-putere (ro) m Russian: лошади́ная си́ла (ru) f (lošadínaja síla) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: коњска снага f Roman: konjska snaga f Slovak: konská sila f Slovene: konjska moč f Spanish: caballo de vapor m Swedish: hästkraft (sv) c Tagalog: kabalyo Thai: แรงม้า (rɛɛng-máa) Ukrainian: кі́нська си́ла f (kínsʹka sýla) Vietnamese: mã lực (vi) (馬力) Welsh: marchnerth m Yakut: ат күүһэ (at küühe)

metric

Arabic: حِصَان‎ (ar) m (ḥiṣān) Armenian: ձիաուժ (hy) (jiauž) Azerbaijani: at gücü Belarusian: ко́нская сі́ла f (kónskaja síla) Bulgarian: ко́нска си́ла f (kónska síla) Catalan: cavall de vapor m Chinese: Mandarin: 馬力／马力 (zh) (mǎlì) Chuvash: лаша вӑйӗ (laš̬a văjĕ) Czech: koňská síla f Danish: hestekraft c Dutch: (metrieke) paardenkracht (nl) Estonian: hobujõud (et) Faroese: hestakraft f Finnish: hevosvoima (fi) French: cheval-vapeur (fr) m Galician: cabalo de vapor (gl) m Georgian: ცხენის ძალა (cxenis ʒala) German: Pferdestärke (de) f Greek: ίππος (el) m (íppos) Hebrew: כּוֹחַ סוּס‎ (he) m (kóaḥ sus) Hindi: अश्व शक्ति f (aśva śakti), हर्सपावर (harsapāvar) Hungarian: (metrikus) lóerő (hu) Irish: each-chumhacht f Italian: cavallo vapore (it) m Japanese: 馬力 (ja) (ばりき, bariki) Kazakh: ат күші (at küşı) Khmer: ហយពល (haʼyĕəʼpŭəl), អស្វឫទ្ធិ (ʼahsvaʼrɨt) Korean: 마력(馬力) (ko) (maryeok) Latvian: zirgspēks m Lithuanian: arklio galia m Macedonian: коњска сила f (konjska sila) Malay: kuasa kuda Malayalam: കുതിരശക്തി (ml) (kutiraśakti) Mongolian: морины хүч (moriny xüč) Norwegian: hestekraft (no) Bokmål: hestekraft (no) m or f Nynorsk: hestekraft f Persian: اسب بخار‎ (fa) (asb-e boxâr) Plautdietsch: Pieetskrauft f Polish: koń mechaniczny (pl) m Portuguese: cavalo de vapor, cavalo-vapor (pt) m Romanian: cal-putere (ro) m Russian: лошади́ная си́ла (ru) f (lošadínaja síla), л. с. f (l. s.) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: коњска снага f Roman: konjska snaga f Slovak: kôň (sk) m, konská sila f, strojný kôň m Slovene: konjska moč f Spanish: caballo de vapor m Swedish: hästkraft (sv) c Tamil: குதிரைத் திறன் (kutirait tiṟaṉ) Telugu: అశ్వ సామర్థ్యం (aśva sāmarthyaṁ) Thai: แรงม้า (rɛɛng-máa) Turkish: beygir gücü (tr) Turkmen: at güýji Ukrainian: кі́нська си́ла f (kínsʹka sýla) Urdu: اسپی طاقت‎ Uzbek: ot kuchi Vietnamese: mã lực (vi) (馬力)

strength

Chinese: Mandarin: 馬力／马力 (zh) (mǎlì) Dutch: macht (nl) Finnish: vääntövoima Portuguese: força (pt) f Russian: лошади́ная си́ла (ru) f (lošadínaja síla)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Hebrew: (please verify) כוח-סוס (Ko'ah Sus) also כ״ס‎

Anagrams

• shorepower