The diesel engine (also known as a compression-ignition engine) is an inner combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition and burn the fuel that happens to be injected into the combustion chamber. This contrasts with spark-ignition engines such as a petrol engine (gasoline engine) or gas engine (using a gaseous fuel as opposed to gasoline), which use a spark plug to ignite an air-fuel mixture.

The diesel engine gets the greatest thermal efficiency of any standard internal or external burning engine due to its very high compression ratio. Low-speed diesel machines (as used in ships and various other applications exactly where overall engine weight is relatively unimportant) can have a thermal efficiency that surpasses 50%.

Diesel engines are manufactured in two-stroke and four-stroke versions. They were originally used as a much more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Because the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, hefty gear and electric generating plants followed later on. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be made use of in a couple of automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. According to the British Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders, the EU average for diesel cars take into account 50% of the total sold, including 70% in France and 38% into the UK.

Diesel engines have the lowest specific fuel consumption of any large internal combustion engine employing a single cycle, 0.26 lb/hp (0.16 kg/kWh) for very large marine engines (combined cycle energy flowers are much more efficient, but employ two engines rather than one). Two-stroke diesels with large pressure forced induction, particularly turbocharging, make up a large percentage of the very largest diesel engines.

In North America, diesel engines are primarily used in large trucks, where the low-stress, high-efficiency period leads to much longer engine life and lower working costs. These advantages also make the diesel engine ideal for use in the heavy-haul railroad environment.

Diesel's original engine injected fuel with the assistance of compressed air, which atomized the fuel and pushed it into the engine through a nozzle (a similar principle to an aerosol spray). The nozzle opening had been closed by a pin valve lifted by the camshaft to initiate the fuel inject