Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several approximately equal units of heat, each measured as the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1°C at 1 atmosphere pressure.
  • noun The unit of heat equal to 1/100 the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water from 0 to 100°C at 1 atmosphere pressure.
  • noun The unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C at 1 atmosphere pressure.
  • noun A unit of energy-producing potential equal to this amount of heat that is contained in food and released upon oxidation by the body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete the gram calorie or small calorie, a non-SI unit of energy, equivalent to approximately 4.2 joules. This unit was widely used in chemistry and physics, being the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 °C.
  • noun nutrition kilogram calorie or large calorie. A unit of energy 1000 times larger than the gram calorie. It is equivalent to the gram kilocalorie, approximately 4.2 kilojoules.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Latin calor, heat; see caloric.]

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