3 ms·

For most people, "motor" and "engine" are synonyms. Is there a technical difference between the two terms?

• yodon 4y ago
  There are people who feel strongly that one is only for electric, on non-electric, or combustion, or thermodynamic, or other classes of thing, kind of like a boat-vs-ship distinction. It is certainly more common to talk about an electric motor than an electric engine, for example. That said, both terms have been used for a very long time for a very wide range of overlapping things. MIT has a nice history[0] of the words and why they are essentially synonyms in most cases (with engine being more appropriate to use in non-mechanical contexts like search engines and economic engines and motor being more appropriate to use as a gerund like motoring through something or motoring around the countryside). [0] https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/whats-the-difference-between-a-motor-and-an-engine/ https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/whats-the...
• andyferris 4y ago
  I thought the term was originally "motor engine" (a piece of engineering that produces motion) in the same way we can have a "compute engine" or a "siege engine" or a similar name for any other _ingenious_ creation. From there we tend to shorten it to either motor or engine. Perhaps in current times people here the terms "combustion engine" and "electric motor" most commonly and assume there is an implied distinction.