There is alot more to it, but essentially an engine is the core framework handling the low level components.
For example:
A graphics engine might implement the neccessary low level mathematics, manage the threads / game loop, model & shader i/o, handle the camera, use ray tracing to create good lighting, etc. This then provides an interface through which a game programmer may easily load a model to the screen.
Technologies such as Ogre, Unreal, and loosely XNA, are game engines.
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