thermo-, therm-, thermi-, -thermia, -therm, -thermal, -thermic, -thermias, -thermies, -thermous, -thermy

(Greek: heat, heating, heater, hot, warm)

The term heat is employed in ordinary language in different senses. Some scientists distinguish four principal applications of the term:

  1. Sensation of heat.
  2. Temperature, or degree of hotness.
  3. Quantity of thermal energy.
  4. Radiant heat, or energy of radiation.

heliothermia
heliothermic
1. Construction planning that provides for natural solar heating and cooling processes and their relationship to a building's shape, orientation, and siting.
2. A description of a lake whose temperature increases, rather than decreases, with depth.
3. Descriptive of a creature absorbing heat and energy from the sun.

This term is sometimes used in place of ectothermic, or "cold-blooded".

heliothermometer
An early form of solar collector, invented by Swiss scientist Horace-Benedict de Saussure in about 1780.
heliothermy
1. The process of regulating body temperature primarily by means of heat gain from direct solar radiation, as in reptiles and amphibians.
2. The utilization of solar radiation to produce useful energy.
hematothermal, haematothermal
Warm blooded.
hematothermic, haematothermic
Descriptive of any animal which is warm blooded.
hematothermous, haematothermous
A reference to animals which are warm blooded.
hemithermoanesthesia (s) (noun), hemithermoanesthesia (pl)
Loss of sensibility to heat and cold affecting one side of the body: Wendy could not feel the cool wind on the right side of her body because of the hemithermoanesthesia which was a result of the nerve damage caused by her illness.
heterotherm
Having a temperature which varies with that of the environment; such as, plants and cold-blooded animals.
heterothermal
heterothermic
heterothermy
1. Having a temperature which varies with that of the surroundings, as plants and cold-blooded animals; cold-blooded.
2. The exhibition of widely different body temperatures at different times or under different conditions, as certain species of birds, marsupials, or hibernating species.
homeotherm
1. Any of the animals, including mammals and birds, that tend to maintain a constant body temperature.
2. Maintaining an almost constant body temperature; warm-blooded; homothermous, etc.
3. An organism, such as a mammal or bird, having a body temperature that is constant and largely independent of the temperature of its surroundings; an endotherm.
homeothermal
homeothermic

Quiz You can find self-scoring quizzes over many of the words in this subject area by going to this Thermo- Vocabulary Quizzes page.

Related "heat, hot" word units: ferv-; pyreto-.

Related "bubble" word unit: ebulli-.