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# thermometer

«thermometer» in Mova's school dictionary: **an instrument that measures temperature — how hot or cold…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (thermometer, thermometers)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A thermometer is an instrument that measures temperature — how hot or cold something is. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#m1)

2) A medical thermometer measures body temperature to check for a fever. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science, pupils read thermometers in degrees Celsius (°C) (or Fahrenheit °F in the USA), measure water, air and ice, and draw line graphs of temperature over time; reading the scale between the marked lines is a maths skill. In everyday life and health, a normal body temperature is about 37 °C (98.6 °F); 38 °C or more is a fever. Kinds: liquid (alcohol) thermometers, digital thermometers, ear thermometers, oven and meat thermometers. Phrases: read the thermometer, the thermometer shows, digital thermometer.

### examples

- The thermometer showed 25 °C in the classroom. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x1)
- Mum used a thermometer to check if I had a fever. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x2)
- Put the thermometer in the ice water and wait a minute. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x3)
- The red liquid in the thermometer rises when it gets warmer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x4)
- Water boils at 100 °C on the thermometer at sea level. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x5)
- Our class thermometer outside the window read minus 3 degrees. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x6)
- Read the scale at eye level for an accurate reading. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x7)
- Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to be any colder without breaking the thermometer, it stopped. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/#x8)

### note

Spelling: thermo-meter («thermo» = heat, «meter» = measure). Maths: count the steps between marked lines — if lines go 0, 10, 20 with 5 small marks between, each mark is 2 degrees. Negative numbers on a thermometer are below zero (freezing). Old mercury thermometers are dangerous if broken — tell an adult, do not touch.

### In the corpora

- [Vets often take a pet's temperature with a thermometer under the tail, because it gives an accurate reading.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/227-the-vet/7/)
- [Old glass thermometers may contain mercury, which is poisonous, so a grown-up must clean up a broken one.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/111-chores-and-broken-things/18/)
- [A thermometer is the honest judge: its liquid grows longer as it warms and shrinks as it cools.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/23-heat-moves-hot-to-cold/4/)
- [The liquid in a thermometer grows longer as it warms; body temperature is about 37 degrees, and a fever is higher.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/23-heat-moves-hot-to-cold/15/)
- [Temperature tells us how hot or cold something is; we measure it with a thermometer in degrees Celsius (°C).](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/82-heat-and-temperature/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «thermometer» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/thermometer/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.