Temperate Meaning
/ˈtɛmpəɹət/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjModerate; not excessive.
adjModerate; not excessive., Specifically, moderate in temperature.
Sentence Examples
Our country's climate is temperate.
Japan's climate is temperate.
They hope that a temperate response will prevent further violent incidents.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The region has a ____ climate, with neither extreme heat nor cold.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The region enjoys a ____ climate with several mild summers and relatively warm winters throughout the entire year today.
Word Origin & History
The adjective is first attested in 1380, in Middle English, the verb in 1540; borrowed from Latin temperātus, perfect passive participle of temperō (“to moderate, forbear, combine properly”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix). See temper. Displaced native Old English ġemetegod.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"She is not hot, but temperate as the morn."
— c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
"That sober freedom out of which there springs Our loyal passion for our temperate kings."
— 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
""Even in his most temperate moments he is constantly felling people with a hunting-crop.""
— 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 19:
"Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all."
— 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:
"I am a temperate man and have made it a rule not to drink before luncheon. But I was so much ashamed of my first feeling about Gorman that I thought it well to break my rule. […] I gave my vote for whisky and soda as the more thorough-going drink of the two. A cocktail is seldom more than a mouthful."
— 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, pages 14–15:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The region has a ____ climate, with neither extreme heat nor cold.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The region enjoys a ____ climate with several mild summers and relatively warm winters throughout the entire year today.