The Industrial Revolution - Middle School and High School

Here's a capital idea: Review this vocabulary list about the Industrial Revolution. Learn about factories, assembly lines, and mass production, as well as inventions like the cotton gin, the locomotive, the telegraph, and the steamboat. With a little labor, you're sure to profit from this list.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. agriculture
    the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock
  2. Andrew Carnegie
    United States industrialist and philanthropist who endowed education and public libraries and research trusts (1835-1919)
  3. assembly line
    series of machines and workers that build step-by-step
  4. automation
    the act of implementing the control of equipment
  5. bourgeoisie
    a socioeconomic group that is neither wealthy nor poor
  6. canal
    long and narrow strip of water for boats or for irrigation
  7. capital
    wealth in the form of money or property
  8. capitalism
    an economic system based on private ownership of assets
  9. competition
    business relation in which two parties vie to gain customers
  10. consumer goods
    goods intended for direct use or consumption
  11. corporation
    a business firm recognized by law as a single body
  12. cottage industry
    a small-scale business that can be run at home
  13. cotton gin
    a machine that separates the seeds from raw fibers
  14. demand
    the ability and desire to purchase goods and services
  15. economy of scale
    the savings in production cost due to mass production
  16. enclosure
    a structure consisting of an area that has been confined
  17. entrepreneur
    someone who organizes a business venture
  18. factory
    a plant with facilities for manufacturing
  19. free enterprise
    an economy relying on market forces to allocate resources
  20. Henry Ford
    United States manufacturer of automobiles who pioneered mass production (1863-1947)
  21. immigrant
    a person who comes to a country in order to settle there
  22. industrialization
    the development of commercial enterprise
  23. Industrial Revolution
    the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial nation
  24. industry
    the action of making of goods and services for sale
  25. infrastructure
    basic facilities needed for the functioning of a country
  26. invention
    a creation resulting from study and experimentation
  27. invest
    lay out money or resources in an enterprise
  28. James Watt
    Scottish engineer and inventor whose improvements in the steam engine led to its wide use in industry (1736-1819)
  29. John D. Rockefeller
    United States industrialist who made a fortune in the oil business and gave half of it away (1839-1937)
  30. Karl Marx
    founder of modern communism
  31. labor
    productive work, especially physical work done for wages
  32. laborer
    someone who works with their hands
  33. labor movement
    an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement
  34. laissez faire
    a doctrine that government should not interfere in commerce
  35. locomotive
    a self-propelled vehicle that draws a train along a track
  36. manufacture
    put together out of artificial or natural components
  37. market economy
    an economy that relies on market forces to determine prices
  38. mass production
    the manufacturing of large quantities of goods
  39. mechanization
    the act of using technology to automate a process or system
  40. merchant
    a businessperson engaged in retail trade
  41. middle class
    a socioeconomic group that is neither wealthy nor poor
  42. migration
    the movement of persons from one locality to another
  43. mill
    a facility for manufacturing
  44. modernization
    the act of making up-to-date in appearance or behavior
  45. monopoly
    a market in which there are many buyers but only one seller
  46. natural resources
    resources (actual and potential) supplied by nature
  47. production
    manufacturing or mining or growing something for sale
  48. profit
    excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time
  49. proletariat
    a social class comprising those who do manual labor
  50. railroad
    the commercial organization responsible for operating trains
  51. reaper
    farm machine that gathers a food crop from the fields
  52. revolution
    a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking
  53. Richard Trevithick
    English engineer who built the first railway locomotive
  54. Robert Fulton
    American inventor who designed the first commercially successful steamboat and the first steam warship (1765-1815)
  55. rural
    living in or characteristic of farming or country life
  56. shareholder
    someone who owns stock in a corporation
  57. shuttle
    bobbin that passes the weft thread between the warp threads
  58. socialism
    an economic system based on state ownership of capital
  59. specialization
    making something suitable for a particular purpose
  60. spinning jenny
    an early spinning machine with multiple spindles
  61. standard of living
    the level of material goods and services available
  62. steamboat
    a boat propelled by a steam engine
  63. steam engine
    external-combustion engine in which heat is used to raise steam which either turns a turbine or forces a piston to move up and down in a cylinder
  64. stock
    capital raised by a corporation through the issue of shares
  65. strike
    refusal to work in protest against low pay or bad conditions
  66. supply
    offering goods and services for sale
  67. technology
    the practical application of science to commerce or industry
  68. telegraph
    apparatus used to communicate at a distance over a wire
  69. telephone
    electronic equipment that transmits sound over distances
  70. tenement
    a run-down apartment house barely meeting minimal standards
  71. textile
    artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting fibers
  72. textile mill
    a factory for making textiles
  73. treadle
    a lever that is operated with the foot
  74. union
    an employee organization that bargains with an employer
  75. urbanization
    the social process whereby cities grow
  76. utilitarianism
    the doctrine that the useful is the good
  77. vulcanize
    treat with sulfur and heat to make stronger or more elastic
  78. working class
    a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
Created on January 19, 2017 (updated April 7, 2017)

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