kilowatt-hour

noun

"kilowatt-hour" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“kilowatt-hour” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A unit of energy equal to that provided by one kilowatt acting for one hour (3·6 × 10⁶ joules).

Corpus desk

Index EN-kilowatt-hour · kilowatt-hour · English

kilowatt-hour · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "K" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for kilowatt-hour
PropertyValue
Headwordkilowatt-hour
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “kilowatt-hour” in English

kilowatt-hourfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

kilowatt-hour is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A unit of energy equal to that provided by one kilowatt acting for one hour (3·6 × 10⁶ joules).".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for kilowatt-hour, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: By surface analysis, kilowatt + hour, or, by surface analysis, kilo- + watt-hour. The correct English form is kilowatt-hour, spelled K-I-L-O-W-A-T-T---H-O-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A unit of energy equal to that provided by one kilowatt acting for one hour (3·6 × 10⁶ joules).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how kilowatt-hour appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Holonyms: watt-year (31.536e6 J) < gigajoule (1.000e9 J) < megawatt-hour (3.600e9 J) < kilowatt-year (31.536e9 J) < terajoule (1.000e12 J) < gigawatt-hour (3.600e12 J) < megawatt-year (31.536e12 J) < petajoule (1.000e15 J) < terawatt-hour (3.600e15 J) < gigawatt-year (31.536e15 J) < exajoule (1.000e18 J) < petawatt-hour (3.600e18 J) < terawatt-year (31.53…
  2. Meronyms: yoctojoule (1.000e-24 J) < zeptojoule (1.000e-21 J) < attojoule (1.000e-18 J) < hartree (4.35974e-18 J) < femtojoule (1.000e-15 J) < picojoule (1.000e-12 J) < nanojoule (1.000e-9 J) < microjoule (1.000e-6 J) < millijoule (1.000e-3 J) < joule (1 J) < milliwatt-hour (3.6 J) < microwatt-year (31.536 J) < kilojoule (1.000e3 J) < watt-hour (3.600e3 J…

Etymology

By surface analysis, kilowatt + hour, or, by surface analysis, kilo- + watt-hour.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "kilowatt-hour"?
"kilowatt-hour" is spelled K-I-L-O-W-A-T-T---H-O-U-R.
What does "kilowatt-hour" mean?
As a noun, "kilowatt-hour" means: A unit of energy equal to that provided by one kilowatt acting for one hour (3·6 × 10⁶ joules).
What is the origin of the word "kilowatt-hour"?
By surface analysis, kilowatt + hour, or, by surface analysis, kilo- + watt-hour. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list