different between wattage vs horsepower

English

Etymology

watt +? -age

Noun

wattage (countable and uncountable, plural wattages)

1. An amount or power (especially electric), expressed in watts, kilowatts etc.
2. The power requirement of some electric appliance.

Related terms

• amperage
• voltage

Translations

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: hôrs?pou'?r, IPA^(key): /?h??s?pa??/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hôs?pou'?, IPA^(key): /?h??s?pa??/

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 non-metric 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

Translations

Anagrams

• shorepower