isotherm

American  

[ahy-suh-thurm] / ˈaɪ səˌθɜrm /

noun

1. Meteorology. a line on a weather map or chart connecting points having equal temperature.

2. Also called isothermal line. Physics. a curve on which every point represents the same temperature.

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isotherm British  

/ ˈaɪsəʊˌθɜːm /

noun

1. a line on a map linking places of equal temperature

2. physics a curve on a graph that connects points of equal temperature

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isotherm Scientific  

/ ī′sə-thûrm′ /

1. A line drawn on a weather map connecting points that have the same temperature. Each point can mark one temperature reading or an average of several readings.

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Etymology

Origin of isotherm

First recorded in 1855–60; back formation from isothermal

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

isotherm

The southern limit of its distribution approximates the isotherm of forty-five degrees.

From Butterflies Worth Knowing by Clarence M. Weed

London, for example, lies in the same latitude as the southern extremity of Hudson Bay; but the isotherm of London, as Humboldt outlines it, passes through Cincinnati.

From A History of Science — Volume 3 by Henry Smith Williams

While in the southern section the isotherm for 10° C. went down to 500 metres, it here lies at a depth of between 50 and 25 metres.

From The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-1912 — Volume 2 by Arthur G. Chater

The isotherm of zero dips far south across northern Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee; while in the upper Mississippi and Missouri Valleys the temperatures were from 20 to 40 degrees below zero.

From The Mentor: The Weather Serial Number 110; 1 July, 1916 by Charles Fitzhugh Talman

At that distant epoch the sub-arctic breezes must have been blowing pretty stiffly in our present temperate latitudes, and these forms would have been constrained, in due time, to seek a more congenial isotherm.

From Life: Its True Genesis by R. W. Wright

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