Definitions

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

  • adjective Of, relating to, using, producing, or caused by heat.
  • adjective Intended or designed in such a way as to help retain body heat.
  • noun A rising current of warm air.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to heat.
  • Of or pertaining to thermæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to heat; warm; hot.
  • adjective caused by or affected by heat.
  • adjective designed to retain heat.
  • adjective See under Conductivity, and Spectrum.
  • adjective (Physics) a unit chosen for the comparison or calculation of quantities of heat. The unit most commonly employed is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram or one pound of water from zero to one degree Centigrade. See Calorie, and under Unit.

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

  • noun meteorology A column of rising air in the lower atmosphere created by uneven heating of Earth's surface.
  • adjective pertaining to heat or temperature.
  • adjective fabric providing efficient insulation so as to keep the body warm.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective caused by or designed to retain heat
  • adjective relating to or associated with heat
  • noun rising current of warm air
  • adjective of or relating to a hot spring

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin *thermalis, from Ancient Greek θέρμη (thermē, "heat").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word thermal.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, The Thermals! If this does anything for you, you should immediately listen to "No Culture Icons", from their first album, "More Parts Per Million" (the entirety of which was recorded for ten bucks, but it sounds like it cost at least $40). "Pillar of Salt" is great too, from their most recent record. If you can't tell, I have a giant crush on The Thermals.

    October 1, 2007