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brownout.

A period of low alternating current line voltage, causing a reduction in illumination.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun
  1. A period of low alternating current line voltage, causing a reduction in illumination.

    When demand for electricity exceeds the available supply, a brownout occurs.
  2. A temporary dimming of vision, usually with a brown hue and accompanied by loss of peripheral vision or tunnel vision.

    On rising suddenly from her chair she experienced a brownout and had to sit down again quickly.
  3. A temporary closing of a fire station, usually due to budget restrictions.

    Fire departments across the country have been forced to rely on rolling brownouts because of the recession.
  4. A power outage during the day; distinguished from a blackout, which occurs at night.

  5. A moment or period where something is weakened, diminished or less effective.

    figuratively · uncommon
  6. A blackout, regardless of time of day.

    Australia · Hong-Kong · Philippines
Where this word comes from

A deverbal from brown out, by analogy with blackout.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.