RPM
Abbreviation with 4 meanings
| Stands for | Revolutions per minute |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 4 |
| Categories | Transportation & Travel, Technology & Computing, Business & Finance |
| Also written | rpm |
RPM has four meanings. The most common are Revolutions per minute (automotive) and RPM Package Manager (software); it can also stand for Revenue per mille and Revenue passenger miles.
Meanings of RPM at a glance
| # | RPM stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revolutions per minute | Transportation & Travel › Automotive |
| 2 | RPM Package Manager | Technology & Computing › Software |
| 3 | Revenue per mille | Business & Finance › Marketing & Advertising |
| 4 | Revenue passenger miles | Transportation & Travel › Aviation |
1. Revolutions per minute
Transportation & Travel · Automotive Abbreviations · also used in measurement
Rotational speed of an engine's crankshaft, shown on the tachometer in thousands. Typical gasoline engines idle at 600 to 1,000 rpm and reach peak power between 5,000 and 7,000 rpm, while diesels rev lower.
Example: The needle swung into the red at 6,500 RPM, so I shifted into third.
Pronounced as letters; "revs" is the informal term. The red zone on the tachometer marks the redline, the maximum safe engine speed, and a rev limiter cuts fuel or spark to prevent overspeed. Lower RPM at highway cruising generally means better fuel economy, which is why modern transmissions have eight to ten gears. Formula One engines are limited to 15,000 rpm by regulation. The term also describes record turntable speeds (33 1/3, 45 and 78 rpm).
2. RPM Package Manager
Technology & Computing · Software Abbreviations
Package format and tool used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, openSUSE and related distributions to install, update and remove software. Packages are .rpm files containing compiled programs, scripts and metadata.
Example: Download the .rpm installer for Fedora or the .deb for Ubuntu.
The name originally meant "Red Hat Package Manager" and became a recursive acronym as other distributions adopted it. Higher-level tools, DNF on Fedora and RHEL and Zypper on openSUSE, resolve dependencies and call RPM underneath. The format is part of the Linux Standard Base. In engineering and music, RPM means revolutions per minute.
3. Revenue per mille
Business & Finance · Marketing & Advertising Abbreviations
Earnings a publisher or creator receives per 1,000 page views or video views, after the platform's share, combining all ad and other revenue sources. YouTube reports RPM to creators alongside CPM.
Example: My channel's CPM is $12, but after YouTube's cut and unmonetized views my RPM is about $4.
RPM is always lower than CPM on YouTube because CPM counts only monetized playbacks and excludes the platform's share. Websites using Google AdSense also see "page RPM." In mechanics, RPM means revolutions per minute.
4. Revenue passenger miles
Transportation & Travel · Aviation Abbreviations
Airline traffic measure equal to the number of paying passengers multiplied by the miles they fly; one paying passenger flown one mile is one RPM. Airlines report RPMs monthly or quarterly to show demand.
Example: Revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, rose 8 percent while capacity grew only 5 percent, lifting the load factor.
Outside the US the metric is RPK, revenue passenger kilometers. Dividing RPMs by available seat miles gives the passenger load factor, typically above 80 percent for major airlines. The same letters more commonly mean revolutions per minute on engines and tachometers, an unrelated meaning.
Related abbreviations
More automotive abbreviations
- PTO – Power take-off
- PZEV – Partial zero-emission vehicle
- RCTA – Rear cross-traffic alert
- RFT – Run-flat tire
- RWD – Rear-wheel drive
- SCR – Selective catalytic reduction
- SoC – State of charge
- SOHC – Single overhead camshaft
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