Adjacent Words

Thermometer definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

THERMOM'ETER, n. [Gr. warm, from heat, and measure.] An instrument for measuring heat; founded on the property which heat possesses of expanding all bodies, the rate or quantity of expansion being supposed proportional to the degree of heat applied, and hence indicating that degree. The thermometer indicates only the sensible heat of bodies, and gives us no information respecting the quantity of latent heat, or of combined heat, which those bodies may contain.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: measuring instrument for measuring temperature

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: French thermomètre, from Greek therm? heat + French -o- + -mètre -meter — more at therm Date: 1633 an instrument for determining temperature; especially one consisting of a glass bulb attached to a fine tube of glass with a numbered scale and containing a liquid (as mercury or colored alcohol) that is sealed in and rises and falls with changes of temperature • thermometric adjective • thermometrically adverb

NOAA Weather Glossary

An instrument for measuring temperature.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. an instrument for measuring temperature, esp. a graduated glass tube with a small bore containing mercury or alcohol which expands when heated. Derivatives: thermometric adj. thermometrical adj. thermometry n. Etymology: F thermomètre or mod.L thermometrum (as THERMO-, -METER)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Thermometer Ther*mom"e*ter, n. [Thermo- + -meter: cf. F. thermom[`e]tre. See Thermal.] (Physics) An instrument for measuring temperature, founded on the principle that changes of temperature in bodies are accompained by proportional changes in their volumes or dimensions. Note: The thermometer usually consists of a glass tube of capillary bore, terminating in a bulb, and containing mercury or alcohol, which expanding or contracting according to the temperature to which it is exposed, indicates the degree of heat or cold by the amount of space occupied, as shown by the position of the top of the liquid column on a graduated scale. See Centigrade, Fahrenheit, and R['e]aumur. To reduce degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Centigrade, substract 32[deg] and multiply by 5/9; to reduce degrees Centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit, multiply by 9/5 and add 32[deg]. Air thermometer, Balance thermometer, etc. See under Air, Balance, etc. Metallic thermometer, a form of thermometer indicating changes of temperature by the expansion or contraction of rods or strips of metal. Register thermometer, or Self-registering thermometer, a thermometer that registers the maximum and minimum of temperature occurring in the interval of time between two consecutive settings of the instrument. A common form contains a bit of steel wire to be pushed before the column and left at the point of maximum temperature, or a slide of enamel, which is drawn back by the liquid, and left within it at the point of minimum temperature.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(thermometers) A thermometer is an instrument for measuring temperature. It usually consists of a narrow glass tube containing a thin column of a liquid which rises and falls as the temperature rises and falls. N-COUNT

Foolish Dictionary

A short, glass tube that regulates the weather--and usually does a poor job.

Moby Thesaurus

calorimeter, clinical thermometer, cryometer, electric thermometer, galvanothermometer, gas thermometer, glass, meat thermometer, mercury, pyrometer, pyrometric cone, resistance pyrometer, telethermometer, thermal detector, thermocouple, thermoelectrometer, thermometrograph, thermostat