How to Use combustion engine in a Sentence

combustion engine

noun
  • So most of Dad’s life lessons center on the combustion engine.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2022
  • Recall how the combustion engine replaced the horse and cart.
    — Syed Ahmed, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
  • Many who made their living shoeing horses were put out by the combustion engine.
    — Star Tribune, 7 Dec. 2020
  • In modern times, electric motors are doing much the same for the combustion engine.
    — Syed Ahmed, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
  • Why not go plug-in-hybrid, having a combustion engine and an electric motor?
    — Mattias Goldmann, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2025
  • Consider that just a few years ago, very few people would have predicted that the end of the combustion engine was in sight.
    — Jennifer Morgan, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2018
  • The power of the internal-combustion engine could not be denied.
    — oregonlive, 30 May 2022
  • Two power the front wheels, while a third augments the combustion engine, which exclusively drives the rear wheels.
    — James Morris, Forbes.com, 23 May 2026
  • Italy is still very attached to combustion engine cars and the automaker lobby is a powerful one.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune Europe, 14 Oct. 2024
  • These small, light motors can be placed in many more locations on the aircraft than would be practical for a combustion engine.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 24 May 2016
  • This mode will start off under electric power, feeding in the combustion engine as and when necessary.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 27 Nov. 2023
  • But electric vehicles, which draw power from a battery instead of a noisy combustion engine, don’t make much noise at slow speeds.
    — Jaclyn Trop, Discover Magazine, 8 Aug. 2020
  • The minivan does have a combustion engine at the front which sends power to the car’s electric motors and battery, which also juices up the drone.
    — Marc Saltzman, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2025
  • Even with a lightweight carbon fiber body, things like batteries, a combustion engine, and four leather seats add up to a lot of mass, even for an electric car.
    — Alexander George, Popular Mechanics, 17 July 2020
  • Then came the internal-combustion engine.
    — Allen Best, Denver Post, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Electric motors are compact and don't need much cooling compared to a combustion engine, and there's no exhaust to worry about.
    — Ars Technica, 25 Feb. 2025
  • And the competition in electric vehicles and combustion engine cars may even increase as growth slows.
    — Neil Winton, Forbes, 22 Sep. 2024
  • The modern combustion engine provides another case-in-point.
    — Michael C. Horowitz, Foreign Affairs, 26 Sep. 2025
  • That may seem like very little, but that is out of a highly fragmented auto market, combustion engine cars included.
    — Bychristiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 26 Sep. 2023
  • The thyroid is like the carburetor in an old internal-combustion engine.
    — New York Times, 8 Sep. 2021
  • How do the number of EVs on Texas roads compare to combustion engine vehicles?
    — Dallas News, 18 Apr. 2022
  • This motor can also work as a generator, letting the combustion engine recharge the battery pack when driving in Recharge mode.
    — Dan Carney, Popular Science, 3 Apr. 2023
  • Of course, the Maybach S 580 e has more than just an internal-combustion engine under the hood.
    — Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 10 Feb. 2023
  • Dual boost mode sees the electric motor and the combustion engine work in tandem to increase acceleration.
    — New Atlas, 25 Feb. 2025
  • And this is because their motor, battery, circuitry, and charger are more expensive to produce than a combustion engine.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 11 Nov. 2021
  • The European Union had planned to ban the sale of new combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
    — Olesya Dmitracova, CNN Money, 6 Feb. 2026
  • During that time, EV sales will rise to two-thirds of all vehicles sold, while combustion engine vehicles will shrink from more than 99% to just one-third.
    — National Geographic, 23 Sep. 2021
  • Germany just pushed the European Union to give a stay of execution to new combustion engine cars in 2035.
    — Hazel Southwell, Ars Technica, 5 May 2023
  • The story of the European combustion engine monopoly is increasingly becoming a thing of the past.
    — Neil Winton, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
  • The range extender system consists of a highly efficient high-voltage generator driven by a small combustion engine.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 20 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'combustion engine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: