isotherm
Americannoun
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Meteorology. a line on a weather map or chart connecting points having equal temperature.
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Also called isothermal line. Physics. a curve on which every point represents the same temperature.
noun
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a line on a map linking places of equal temperature
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physics a curve on a graph that connects points of equal temperature
Etymology
Origin of isotherm
First recorded in 1855–60; back formation from isothermal
Vocabulary lists containing isotherm
Weather and Climate - Middle School
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Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the southern hemisphere this isotherm crosses the southern extremity of South America, and runs fairly east and west around the globe there.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 5 "Clervaux" to "Cockade" by Various
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
An isotherm is an imaginary line on the earth’s surface, passing through places having a corresponding temperature either throughout the year or at any particular period.
From Meteorology or Weather Explained by J. G. M'Pherson
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
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
