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thermometer

American  
[ther-mom-i-ter] / θərˈmɒm ɪ tər /

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 British  
/ 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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
thermometer Scientific  
/ thər-mŏm′ĭ-tər /

  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

Etymology

Origin of thermometer

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

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.

Forecasters are expecting the thermometer to reach 89 degrees in Burbank, breaking a 40-year-old record of 86 degrees that was set in 1986, Hall said.

From Los Angeles Times

Taking the thermometer, Daisy gave it a good shaking, walked over, and dabbed it in my mouth.

From Literature

The box also lacked a thermometer that could alert the medical team to the low temperature.

From BBC

"How pitiful," he said, lowering a thermometer into the water.

From Barron's

I dig through the kitchen drawers in search of a thermometer but come up empty.

From Literature

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.