Wide open throttle or wide-open throttle (WOT), also called full throttle, is the fully opened state of a throttle on an engine. The term also, by extension, usually refers to the maximum-speed state of running the engine, as the normal result of a fully opened throttle plate/butterfly valve. In an internal combustion engine, this state entails the maximum intake of air and fuel that occurs when the throttle plates inside the carburetor or throttle body are "wide open", providing the least resistance to the incoming air. In the case of an automobile, WOT is when the accelerator is depressed fully, sometimes referred to as "flooring it". A throttle on a steam engine controls how much steam is sent to the cylinders from the boiler.
