temperature

Meaning

Noun

• A measure of cold or heat, often measurable with a thermometer.
• An elevated body temperature, as present in fever and many illnesses.
• 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.
• The state or condition of being tempered or moderated.
• The balance of humours in the body, or one's character or outlook as considered determined from this; temperament.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• apparent temperature
• color temperature
• planetary equilibrium temperature
• Hagedorn temperature
• Planck temperature

Origin

• Borrowed from Latin temperatura (cf. also French température), from the past participle stem of tempero.