top dead centers
top dead centers is the plural of top dead center.
Meaning of top dead center
Noun
top dead center (uncountable)
- A position in the cycle of a piston engine wherein the piston is at the topmost point in its stroke. In a four-stroke cycle, TDC occurs twice: at the end of the compression stroke and at the end of the exhaust stroke.
- Synonyms:
- TDC
- Antonyms:
- bottom dead center, BDC
- The reference mark on a flywheel (and engine block) indicating the engine is in this position, when aligned.
- Synonyms:
- TDC
- Antonyms:
- bottom dead center, BDC
Questions about top dead centers
- What is top dead centers the plural of?
- Top dead centers is the plural of top dead center.
Words near top dead centers in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: top dead centers (page history and authors); top dead center (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “top dead centers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/top_dead_centers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
