Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Temperature?

\Tem"per*a*ture\, n. (Physiol. & Med.) 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[deg]-99.5[deg] F., in the mouth of an adult about 98.4[deg]).
\Tem"per*a*ture\, n. [F. temp['e]rature, L. temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.] 1. Constitution; state; degree of any quality. 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. --Bacon. Memory depends upon the consistence and the temperature of the brain. --I. Watts. 2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [Obs.] In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth, Most goodly temperature you may descry. --Spenser. 3. (Physics) 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. 4. Mixture; compound. [Obs.] Made a temperature of brass and iron together. --Holland. {Absolute temperature}. (Physics) See under {Absolute}. {Animal temperature} (Physiol.), the nearly constant temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded (homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during respiration. See {Homoiothermal}. {Temperature sense} (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of temperature in external objects. --H. N. Martin.