thermal
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MORE ABOUT THERMAL
What does thermal mean?
Thermal means caused by or related to heat or temperature.
The word thermal is used in science to describe a specific kind of energy: thermal energy. Thermal energy is produced by heating up molecules and atoms until they move fast enough to collide into each other. What we experience as heat is a flow of thermal energy. Geothermal energy involves heat generated by the earth.
Outside of science, the word thermal is most often used to mean that something is related to high temperatures or something intended to retain body heat, as in Thermal gloves are insulated to keep your hands warm in the winter.
Thermal is sometimes used in reference to thermal springs, also known as hot springs.
The plural noun thermals is sometimes used as shorthand for thermal underwear, which is designed to retain body heat.
The word thermic can be used as a synonym of thermal, typically in technical ways in fields such as science or engineering.
Example: Thermal maps show areas of higher and lower temperatures.
Where does thermal come from?
The first records of thermal come from the 1750s. It comes from therm-, a variant of thermo-, which is derived from the Greek word thermós, meaning “hot.”
In everyday life, we usually don’t use thermal, opting for simpler, more specific words when we talk about heat and temperature. For example, we use hot and cold to describe things that have a high (hot) or low (cold) amount of thermal energy or that have a high or low temperature.
Thermal is used in the names of a variety of heat-related products, such as thermal imaging cameras, which use heat sensors, or thermal blankets, which reflect your body heat to keep you warm.
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What are some other forms related to thermal?
- thermally (adverb)
- hyperthermal (adjective)
- hyperthermally (adverb)
- nonthermal (adjective)
What are some synonyms for thermal?
What are some words that share a root or word element with thermal?
What are some words that often get used in discussing thermal?
How is thermal used in real life?
Thermal is typically used in a scientific context.
Sustainable Methods of Thermal Energy Storage to Bring Drastic Transformationhttps://t.co/tXC5BOy6S0 pic.twitter.com/wZJtWuCkvL
— Renewables News (@RenewablesNews) August 5, 2020
.@NASANPP sees wildfires across Australia; thermal measurements show active fires outlined in red.https://t.co/qIERCO0hP9 pic.twitter.com/HJ9FjMZ63I
— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) July 18, 2017
I will always RT this video demonstration showing how you could handle GLOWING HOT space shuttle thermal tiles right after they came out of an oven at > 2000 K due to their insulating properties. Incredible material science, remarkably COOL (sorry) pic.twitter.com/FQEvumdVL2
— Chris Combs (@DrChrisCombs) September 3, 2020
Try using thermal!
Is thermal used correctly in the following sentence?
Astronauts collected information about the temperature around Earth and reported the thermal measurements back to ground control.