industrial revolution: Meaning and Definition of

indus'trial revolu'tion

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. (sometimes caps.) 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, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.