Word Study
temperature
CIDE DICTIONARY
temperature, n. [F. température, L. temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.].
- Constitution; state; degree of any quality. [1913 Webster]"The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to feign, if there be no remedy." [1913 Webster]"Memory depends upon the consistence and the temperature of the brain." [1913 Webster]
- Freedom from passion; moderation. [1913 Webster]"In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly temperature you may descry." [1913 Webster] - Condition with respect to heat or cold, especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as, the temperature of the air; high temperature; low temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling."The temperature of a liquid or a solid body as measured by a thermometer is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the consituent atoms or molecules of the body. For other states of matter such as plasma, electromagnetic radiation, or subatomic particles, an analogous measure of the average kinetic energy may be expressed as a
temperature , although it could never be measured by a traditional thermometer, let alone by sensing with the skin." [1913 Webster] - Mixture; compound. [1913 Webster]"Made a temperature of brass and iron together." [1913 Webster]
- The degree of heat of the body of a living being, esp. of the human body; also (Colloq.), loosely, the excess of this over the normal (of the human body 98°-99.5° F., in the mouth of an adult about 98.4°). [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
temperature, n.
1 the degree or intensity of heat of a body in relation to others, esp. as shown by a thermometer or perceived by touch etc.
2 Med. the degree of internal heat of the body.
3 colloq. a body temperature above the normal (have a temperature).
4 the degree of excitement in a discussion etc.
1 the degree or intensity of heat of a body in relation to others, esp. as shown by a thermometer or perceived by touch etc.
2 Med. the degree of internal heat of the body.
3 colloq. a body temperature above the normal (have a temperature).
4 the degree of excitement in a discussion etc.
Idiom
take a person's temperature ascertain a person's body temperature, esp. as a diagnostic aid. temperature-humidity index a quantity giving the measure of discomfort due to the combined effects of the temperature and humidity of the air.
Etymology
F temp{eacute}rature or L temperatura (as TEMPER)
ROGET THESAURUS
temperature
Disease
N disease, illness, sickness, ailing, all the ills that flesh is heir to, morbidity, morbosity, infirmity, ailment, indisposition, complaint, disorder, malady, distemper, distemperature, visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit, delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy, cachexia, atrophy, marasmus, indigestion, dyspepsia, decay, decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration, taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity, infestation, epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic, murrain, plague, pestilence, pox, sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil, pimple, wen, carbuncle, gathering, imposthume, peccant humor, issue, rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore, cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor, caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus, sphacelation, leprosy, eruption, rash, breaking out, fever, temperature, calenture, inflammation, ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis, Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera, biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea, blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash, breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever, heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis, cholera, asphyxia, chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre, enanthem, enanthema, erysipelas, exanthem, exanthema, gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness, grip, grippe, influenza, flu, hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw, measles, mumps, polio, necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough, yellow fever, yellow jack, fatal disease, dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough, general breaking up, break up of the system, idiocy insanity, martyr to disease, cripple, the halt the lame and the blind, valetudinary, valetudinarian, invalid, patient, case, sickroom, sick- chamber, pathology, etiology, nosology, anthrax, bighead, blackleg, blackquarter, cattle plague, glanders, mange, scrapie, milk sickness, heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms, quarter-evil, quarter-ill, rinderpest, virus, bacterium, bacteria, DNA virus, RNA virus, rhinovirus, rhabdovirus, picornavirus, herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus, CMV, human immunodefficiency virus, HIV, diseased, ailing, ill, ill of, taken ill, seized with, indisposed, unwell, sick, squeamish, poorly, seedy, affected with illness, afflicted with illness, laid up, confined, bedridden, invalided, in hospital, on the sick list, out of health, out of sorts, under the weather, valetudinary, unsound, unhealthy, sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced, drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting, morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered, rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core, withered, palsied, paralytic, dyspeptic, luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic, syntectic, syntectical, tabetic, varicose, touched in the wind, broken-winded, spavined, gasping, hors de combat, weakly, weakened, decrepit, decayed, incurable, in declining health, cranky, in a bad way, in danger, prostrate, moribund, morbific epidemic, endemic, zymotic.Life
N life, vitality, viability, animation, vital spark, vital flame, soul, spirit, respiration, wind, breath of life, breath of one's nostrils, oxygen, air, respirator, artificial respirator, heart and lung machine, iron lung, medical devices, lifeblood, Archeus, existence, vivification, vital force, vitalization, revivification, Prometheus, life to come, physiology, biology, animal ecology, nourishment, staff of life, genetics, heredity, inheritance, evolution, natural selection, reproduction (production), microbe, aerobe, anaerobe, facultative anaerobe, obligate aerobe, obligate anaerobe, halophile, methanogen, archaebacteria, microaerophile, animal, vegetable, artificial life, robot, robotics, artificial intelligence, breathing, breathing rate, heartbeat, pulse, temperature, preservation of life, healing (medicine), living, alive, in life, in the flesh, in the land of the living, on this side of the grave, above ground, breathing, quick, animated, animative, lively, all alive and kicking, tenacious of life, full of life, yeasty, vital, vitalic, vivifying, vivified viable, zoetic, Promethean, vivendi causa, atqui vivere militare est, non est vivere sed valere vita.Heat
N heat, caloric, temperature, warmth, fervor, calidity, incalescence, incandescence, glow, flush, fever, hectic, phlogiston, fire, spark, scintillation, flash, flame, blaze, bonfire, firework, pyrotechnics, pyrotechny, wildfire, sheet of fire, lambent flame, devouring element, adiathermancy, recalescence, summer, dog days, canicular days, baking, heat, white heat, tropical heat, Afric heat, Bengal heat, summer heat, blood heat, sirocco, simoom, broiling sun, insolation, warming, sun, pyrology, thermology, thermotics, thermodynamics, thermometer, calorie, gram-calorie, small calorie, kilocalorie, kilogram calorie, large calorie, British Thermal Unit, B, T, U, therm, quad, degrees Kelvin, kelvins, degrees centigrade, degrees Celsius, degrees Fahrenheit, hot, warm, mild, genial, tepid, lukewarm, unfrozen, thermal, thermic, calorific, fervent, fervid, ardent, aglow, sunny, torrid, tropical, estival, canicular, steamy, close, sultry, stifling, stuffy, suffocating, oppressive, reeking, baking, red hot, white hot, smoking hot, burning, hot, piping hot, like a furnace, like an oven, burning, hot as fire, hot as pepper, hot enough to roast an ox, hot enough to boil an egg, fiery, incandescent, incalescent, candent, ebullient, glowing, smoking, live, on fire, dazzling, in flames, blazing, in a blaze, alight, afire, ablaze, unquenched, unextinguished, smoldering, in a heat, in a glow, in a fever, in a perspiration, in a sweat, sudorific, sweltering, sweltered, blood hot, blood warm, warm as a toast, warm as wool, volcanic, plutonic, igneous, isothermal, isothermic, isotheral, not a breath of air, whirlwinds of tempestuous fire.For further exploring for "temperature" in Webster Dictionary Online