aeolipile
/ˈiː.əʊ.lɪ.pʌɪl/
aeolipile noun: a steam engine powered by rocket propulsion due to escaping steam, consisting of a pressure vessel mounted on a bearing, with one or more tubes which exhaust steam tangentially to the rotation axis so as to create rotation, which is mostly regarded as a curiosity with no practical use.
Noun
aeolipile (plural aeolipiles)
- A steam engine powered by rocket propulsion due to escaping steam, consisting of a pressure vessel mounted on a bearing, with one or more tubes which exhaust steam tangentially to the rotation axis so as to create rotation, which is mostly regarded as a curiosity with no practical use.
- His machine, called an aeolipile, was quite simple. Water in a sealed kettle was heated to boiling over a fire. As the steam expanded, it traveled up two tubes into a sphere, which had two L-shaped openings. The steam would force its way out of the openings, causing the sphere to spin.2020, John Rocco, How We Got to the Moon, page 29
Forms of aeolipile
| plural | aeolipiles |
|---|---|
| alternative form | aeolipyle |
| alternative form | eolipile |
Origin of aeolipile
From French éolipyle, from Latin Aeoli pylae (“doorway of Aeolus”).
Questions about aeolipile
- What does aeolipile mean?
- Aeolipile means a steam engine powered by rocket propulsion due to escaping steam, consisting of a pressure vessel mounted on a bearing, with one or more tubes which exhaust steam tangentially to the rotation axis so as to create rotation, which is mostly regarded as a curiosity with no practical use.
- What part of speech is aeolipile?
- Aeolipile is a noun.
- How do you pronounce aeolipile?
- Aeolipile is pronounced /ˈiː.əʊ.lɪ.pʌɪl/.
- What is the plural of aeolipile?
- The plural of aeolipile is aeolipiles.
Words near aeolipile in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: aeolipile (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “aeolipile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aeolipile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.