Temperature Meaning
/ˈtɛm.p(ə.)ɹə.t͡ʃə/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA measure of cold or heat, often measurable with a thermometer.
nounAn elevated body temperature, as present in many illnesses; fever.
Sentence Examples
You don't have a temperature.
Milk boils at a higher temperature than water.
The temperature reached a record low in London last night.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The nurse measured her ____ with a thermometer and found it was normal.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The nurse used a digital thermometer to check the patient's ____ and see if he had developed a high fever today.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Latin temperātūra (cf. also French température), from the past participle stem of tempero (“to temper”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2020, page 80:
"The opposite issue emerges in the summer when students face scorching temperatures with unreliable or nonexistent air conditioning."
— 2018 January 4, Janie Tankard Carnock, “Frigid Baltimore City schools: The racism we haven’t confronted”, in CNN:
""Aren't you feeling so well this morning?" she asked him anxiously. "Do you think you've got a temperature?""
— 1951, Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time:
"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."
— 2000 September, Clinton D. Stoner, “Inquiries into the Nature of Free Energy and Entropy in Respect to Biochemical Thermodynamics”, in Entropy, volume 2, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 106–141:
"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."
— 2005 August 20, Seth Schiesel, “Taking the Temperature of the Creative Body”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The nurse measured her ____ with a thermometer and found it was normal.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The nurse used a digital thermometer to check the patient's ____ and see if he had developed a high fever today.