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.

---

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

---

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of isotherm

First recorded in 1855–60; back formation from isothermal

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

isotherm

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 Wright, R. W.

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 Talman, Charles Fitzhugh

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 Williams, Henry Smith

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 M'Pherson, J. G.

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

From Butterflies Worth Knowing by Weed, Clarence M.