thermometer

[ther-mom-i-ter]

noun

1. an instrument for measuring temperature, often a sealed glass tube that contains a column of liquid, as mercury, that expands and contracts, or rises and falls, with temperature changes, the temperature being read where the top of the column coincides with a calibrated scale marked on the tube or its frame.

thermometer

/ θəˈmɒmɪtə /

noun

1. an instrument used to measure temperature, esp one in which a thin column of liquid, such as mercury, expands and contracts within a graduated sealed tube See also clinical thermometer gas thermometer resistance thermometer thermocouple pyrometer

thermometer

1. An instrument used to measure temperature. There are many types of thermometers; the most common consist of a closed, graduated glass tube in which a liquid expands or contracts as the temperature increases or decreases. Other types of thermometers work by detecting changes in the volume or pressure of an enclosed gas or by registering thermoelectric changes in a conductor (such as a thermistor or thermocouple).

Other Word Forms

• thermometric adjective
• thermometrical adjective
• thermometrically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of thermometer¹

First recorded in 1615–25; thermo- + -meter

Example Sentences

So I’ve been quarantined in a corner of the house, reaching alternately for Tylenol and the thermometer.

From Los Angeles Times

Sunday was one of those cloudless late-summer Dodger Stadium afternoons in which the flags in center field stirred lazily in the slight breeze and the air felt far hotter than the thermometer said.

From Los Angeles Times

Since 1999, his role involves opening what is known as the Stevenson screen which holds sensitive thermometers, before noting down his readings for the day into the handwritten ledger.

From BBC

As the UK's national weather service, the Met Office is the custodian of the Central England Temperature record, the longest running weather record in the world, based on measurements taken using thermometers and other instruments.

From BBC

The thermometer hit 27C in Glasgow on day one with forecasts of even higher temperatures to come over the weekend.

From BBC

Related Words

• instrument 
• thermostat