A. a motor is electric,.. an engine burns something...
We have an engine...

B. It's a motorcycle,.. it has a motor...
We have a motor...

C. an engine converts energy into mechanical work...
A motor is a subset of engines that produce motion as the mechanical work.
We have an engine, that is a motor

D. a motor is motive, it converts energy into motion... an engine is a device consisting of multiple parts...
We have both...

I'll go with both, or either...
D.,..is the oldest, and most rooted definition...
...

PS... you can vote for more than one answer...

In the boating world the outboard is called a motor.

In railroading, the diesel locomotive is usually called a "motor." Of course, it has a diesel engine driving a alternator, which in turn drives a motor. The motor actually pulls the train.

Google finds information using a search "engine."

The LS650 has a gasoline engine, but it also has an electric starter motor, so it has both.

It really depends on what dictionary you use and who you talk to.  I was always told that an "engine" specifically referred to a motor that converted thermal energy into mechanical motion, where as a motor was anything that converted any type of energy or motion into another mechanical motion. If you look the terms up in Merriam-Webster, this is the same general idea that you'll see.  If you look them up in the Oxford dictionary, the definitions are reversed.  Cambridge defines an engine as a machine using energy from steam or fuel to produce movement, but then it calls a motor any engine that does work.

Sounds to me like the square/rectangle rule, except that in this case nobody's sure which is which.  

Ship versus boat seems to really piss naval guys off.  

Dont worry about that bunch,Theyre screwy anyway,,
IN electronics, THEIR electrons flow from  + to -.

Blinky-FSO wrote on 09/16/13 at 07:36:41:


Not to be pedantic, but isn't it that feature (or lack thereof) which distinguishes chaps from trousers?

English - engine
French - moteur
German - motor
Spanish - motor
Italian - motore
Portuguese - motor

A 5x1 score. Nevertheless, in Portuguese, my mother tongue, we use the word engenho (pronounce engenew), signifying mill.

Steve H wrote on 09/16/13 at 16:55:28:



Hey,, dont try to tellme that,, I KNOW,, but  the Navy teaches it  bakkerds!

Engine, for me. An engine turns a fuel into energy, a motor turns one form of energy (yes I know the fuel is a latent form of energy) into another. Engines burns fuel, makes power. Electric motor, takes electrical energy (made somewhere else) and makes power. Steam engine: The whole assembly, burner, boiler, powertrain, is an external combustion engine, but the part that uses steam to make reciprocating and rotary motion is referred to as the motor.
So if the Savage single was converted to run on compressed air, then it's a motor but burning petrol, it's an engine (it's what I learned in Diesel mechanicing school, anyway).