Wiktionary

temperature

See also: température

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin temperātūra[1] (cf. also French température), from the past participle stem of tempero (“I temper”).

Pronunciation

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  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtɛm.pɹə.t͡ʃə/, /ˈtɛm.pə.ɹə.t͡ʃə/, /ˈtɛm.pə.t͡ʃə/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɛm.pəɹ.əˌt͡ʃɚ/, /ˈtɛm.pəɹˌt͡ʃɚ/, /ˈtɛm.pɹəˌt͡ʃɚ/, /ˈtɛm.pə.t͡ʃɚ/, [ˈtʰɛm.pʰəɹˌt͡ʃɚ], [ˈtʰɛm.pʰɹəˌt͡ʃɚ]
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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temperature (countable and uncountable, plural temperatures)

  1. A measure of cold or heat, often measurable with a thermometer.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:temperature
    The boiling temperature of pure water is 100 degrees Celsius.
    The temperature in the room dropped nearly 20 degrees; it went from hot to cold.
    The most accurate way to take your temperature is by sticking a thermometer up your butt.
    • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:
      Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
  2. An elevated body temperature, as present in fever and many illnesses.
    You have a temperature. I think you should stay home today. You’re sick.
    • 1951, Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time:
      "Aren't you feeling so well this morning?" she asked him anxiously. "Do you think you've got a temperature?"
  3. (thermodynamics) A property of macroscopic amounts of matter that serves to gauge the average intensity of the random actual motions of the individually mobile particulate constituents.
    • 2000 September, Clinton D. Stoner, “Inquiries into the Nature of Free Energy and Entropy in Respect to Biochemical Thermodynamics”, in Entropy‎[1], volume 2, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 106–141:
      In consequence, macroscopic amounts of matter in thermal contact with one another tend to be at the same temperature, a fact of sufficient fundamental importance to merit belated designation as the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics.
  4. (machine learning) A parameter that controls the degree of randomness of the output.
  5. (figurative, colloquial) The general mood.
    • 2005 August 20, Seth Schiesel, “Taking the Temperature of the Creative Body”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN:
      But it is both easier and more accurate to take the industry's true temperature at small private gatherings like a conference organized by the Ziff Davis publishing company in northern California last week.
  6. (obsolete) The state or condition of being tempered or moderated.
  7. (now rare, archaic) The balance of humours in the body, or one's character or outlook as considered determined from this; temperament.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
      Our intemperence it is that pulls so many several incurable diseases on our heads, that hastens old age, perverts our temperature, and brings upon us sudden death.
    • 1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […]:
      […] that not only the production of a rational Being was concern'd in it, but that possibly the happy foundation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind […]
    • 1993, James Michie, trans. Ovid, The Art of Love, Book II:
      Only a strong dose of love will cure / A woman with an angry temperature.

Quotations

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  • 2007, James Shipman, Jerry Wilson, Aaron Todd, An Introduction to Physical Science: Twelfth Edition, pages 106–108:
    Heat and temperature, although different, are intimately related. […] For example, suppose you added equal amounts of heat to equal masses of iron and aluminum. How do you think their temperatures would change? […] if the temperature of the iron increased by 100 C°, the corresponding temperature change in the aluminum would be only 48 C°.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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elevated body temperature
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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “temperature”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /tem.pe.raˈtu.re/
  • Rhymes: -ure
  • Hyphenation: tem‧pe‧ra‧tù‧re

Noun

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temperature f pl

  1. plural of temperatura

Latin

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Participle

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temperātūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of temperātūrus

Middle French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin temperatura.

Noun

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temperature f (plural temperatures)

  1. disposition; habitual state; temperament
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