kilowatt

Definition

One thousand (10³) watts, an amount of power large enough to power such things as a typical home appliance (e.g., a microwave oven, a toaster, or a hair dryer). (Consuming 1 kilowatt during a duration of 1 hour consumes 1 kilowatt-hour of energy.)

Etymology

From kilo- + watt.

Example Sentences

• "Holonyms: MW, megawatt < GW, gigawatt < TW, terawatt < PW, petawatt"
• "Meronyms: mW, milliwatt < W, watt"
• "And one California kilowatt equals 3 East Coast KWs. And—as everybody knows that—we, on the East Coast, are the only legal ones."