industrial revolution

American

[in-duhs-tree-uhl rev-uh-loo-shuhn] / ɪnˈdʌs tri əl ˌrɛv əˈlu ʃən /

noun

none the industrial revolution or the Industrial Revolution the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, such as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
any period of change to the economic and social organization of a country, region, etc., that is characterized by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines and the concentration of industry in large establishments.

Industrial Revolution British

noun

the transformation in the 18th and 19th centuries of first Britain and then other W European countries and the US into industrial nations

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Industrial Revolution Cultural

The rapid industrial growth that began in England during the middle of the eighteenth century and then spread over the next 50 years to many other countries, including the United States. The revolution depended on devices such as the steam engine (see James Watt), which were invented at a rapidly increasing rate during the period. The Industrial Revolution brought on a rapid concentration of people in cities and changed the nature of work for many people. (See Luddites.)

Etymology

Origin of industrial revolution

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“I suppose this would have been someone’s whole job, before the industrial revolution. It doesn’t seem like a fast process.”

From Literature

“It’s the industrial revolution—people going from farmland into factories—but we don’t know what the factories are yet,” Kerr said of the AI era.

From The Wall Street Journal

"Our customers are racing to invest in AI compute — the factories powering the AI industrial revolution and their future growth."

From BBC

“Bigger picture, we are still in the very beginning of the next industrial revolution,” as agentic and physical AI are deployed and adopted, Muse said.

From MarketWatch

"Every industrial revolution has always created more jobs than it has displaced," he said.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023