Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Temperature \Tem"per*a*ture\, n. (Physiol. & Med.)
The degree of heat of the body of a living being, esp. of the
human body; also (Colloq.), loosely, the excess of this over
the normal (of the human body 98[deg]-99.5[deg] F., in the
mouth of an adult about 98.4[deg]).
Temperature \Tem"per*a*ture\, n. [F. temp['e]rature, L.
temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.]
1. Constitution; state; degree of any quality.
The best composition and temperature is, to have
openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit,
dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to
feign, if there be no remedy. --Bacon.
Memory depends upon the consistence and the
temperature of the brain. --I. Watts.
2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [Obs.]
In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly temperature you may descry. --Spenser.
3. (Physics) Condition with respect to heat or cold,
especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by
the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as,
the temperature of the air; high temperature; low
temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling.
4. Mixture; compound. [Obs.]
Made a temperature of brass and iron together.
--Holland.
{Absolute temperature}. (Physics) See under {Absolute}.
{Animal temperature} (Physiol.), the nearly constant
temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded
(homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source
of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the
food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during
respiration. See {Homoiothermal}.
{Temperature sense} (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving
cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of
temperature in external objects. --H. N. Martin.
Source : WordNet®
temperature
n 1: the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment
(corresponding to its molecular activity)
2: the somatic sensation of cold or heat