temperature

Noun

temperature (countable and uncountable, plural temperatures)

1. A measure of cold or heat, often measurable with a thermometer.
   • The boiling temperature of pure water is 100 degrees Celsius.
   • The temperature in the room dropped nearly 20 degrees; it went from hot to cold.
2. An elevated body temperature, as present in many illnesses; fever.
   • You have a temperature. I think you should stay home today. You’re sick.
   • "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
3. 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.
   • 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
4. (machine learning) A parameter that controls the degree of randomness of the output.
5. (colloquial, figuratively) The general mood.
   • 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
   • [Stephen] Miller's words did not seem designed to lower the temperature.2025 September 13, Edward Luce, “A descent into mutual loathing”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7
6. (obsolete) The state or condition of being tempered or moderated.
7. (archaic) The balance of humours in the body, or one's character or outlook as considered determined from this; temperament.
   • Our intemperence it is that pulls so many several incurable diseases on our heads, that hastens old age, perverts our temperature, and brings upon us sudden death.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
   • […]that not only the production of a rational Being was concern'd in it, but that possibly the happy foundation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind […]1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […]