Scottish engineer and inventor whose improvements in the steam engine led to its wide use in industry (1736-1819)
"James Watt was a brilliant Scottish engineer whose innovations made the steam engine indispensable to industrialization."
In the International System of Units, the derived unit of power; the power of a system in which one joule of energy is transferred per second. Symbol: W
"The light bulb consumes 60 watts of electrical power to produce its glow."
In plain English: A watt is a unit used to measure how much power an electrical device uses at any given moment.
"The lightbulb is rated at sixty watts, so I need to check if my circuit can handle it before replacing them with higher-wattage bulbs for better brightness."
Usage: Use watt to measure electrical power or light bulb brightness rather than speed or distance. Do not confuse this unit with volt, which measures voltage and potential difference.
Watt, a king of Sussex.
"King Æthelweard recorded that his ancestor Wætt was an early ruler of Sussex before 600 AD."
The unit of power was named after the Scottish engineer James Watt to honor his contributions to steam engine technology. This name entered English usage directly from this historical figure rather than evolving from an older word with a different meaning.