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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

engineer

/ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:57
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What does engineer mean?

noun

  1. (figuratively) A soldier engaged in designing or constructing military works for attack or defence, or other engineering works.
  2. A person professionally engaged in the technical design and construction of large-scale private and public works such as bridges, buildings, harbours, railways, roads, etc.; a civil engineer.
  3. Originally, a person engaged in designing, constructing, or maintaining engines or machinery; now (more generally), a person qualified or professionally engaged in any branch of engineering, or studying to do so.
More meanings (12)

noun

  1. A person who drives or operates a fire engine (firefighting apparatus).
  2. A person who drives or operates a locomotive; a train driver.
  3. Preceded by a qualifying word: a person who uses abilities or knowledge to manipulate events or people.
  4. An honorific title given to engineers before their name.
  5. (figuratively, obsolete) A soldier in charge of operating a weapon; an artilleryman, a gunner.
  6. (historical) A person who operates a steam engine; specifically (nautical), a person employed to operate the steam engine in the engine room of a ship.
  7. (derogatory) A person who formulates plots or schemes; a plotter, a schemer.

verb

  1. To employ one's abilities and knowledge as an engineer to design, construct, and/or maintain (something, such as a machine or a structure), usually for industrial or public use.
  2. To use genetic engineering to alter or construct (a DNA sequence), or to alter (an organism).
  3. To plan or achieve (a goal) by contrivance or guile; to finagle, to wangle.
  4. To formulate plots or schemes; to plot, to scheme.
  5. (rare) To work as an engineer.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Neither the engineer nor the stoker was dead, and, after remaining for some time in their swoon, had come to themselves.
Jules VerneAround the World in Eighty DaysTranslated by George M. (George Makepeace) TowleProject Gutenberg ebook #103
On inquiry, it proved that such was the case, and that a wandering fiddler was the unfailing harbinger of the engineer.
Robert Louis StevensonRecords of a Family of EngineersProject Gutenberg ebook #280
More book examples (3)
He becomes a workman or a foreman if he can get no further, an engineer if his aptitudes take him as far.
Gustave Le BonThe crowd : $b A study of the popular mindProject Gutenberg ebook #445
Mr. Lloyd, the chief engineer of the Navy, conducted the investigation, and reported most favourably as to the manner of her performance.
Samuel SmilesMen of Invention and IndustryProject Gutenberg ebook #725
He was furnishing the money to put a young brother through a polytechnic school and satisfy his desire to become a civil engineer.
Mark TwainWhat Is Man? and Other EssaysProject Gutenberg ebook #70