Software engine

A software engine is a core component of a complex software system. The word "engine" is a metaphor of a car's engine. Thus a software engine is a complex subsystem.

There is no formal guideline for what should be called an engine, but the term has become widespread in the software industry.

Notable examples
• Antivirus engine

• Chess engine

• Correlation engine

• Database engine

• Graphics engine

• Layout engine

• Physics engine

• Polymorphic engine

• Reasoning engine

• Recommendation engine

• Regular expression engine

• Search engine

• Workflow engine

Multi-engine systems

 * Mainstream web browsers have both a rendering engine and a JavaScript engine.


 * Video games are often based on a game engine. Some of these also have specialized physics or graphics engines.