centigrade

Pluralcentigrades (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Of or relating to the Celsius temperature scale, on which water freezes at 0° and boils at 100°.

   The forecast predicted a high of thirty-two degrees centigrade for the weekend.

   Her oven needed to reach two hundred degrees centigrade before baking.

   SimilarCelsius

   Note

   A second name for the Celsius scale, and the older one. Since 1948 Celsius has been the standard name, and degrees centigrade and degrees Celsius mean exactly the same thing. Technical writing prefers Celsius, partly because centigrade also names the hundred-part angle scale. Outside talk of temperature, the older word can therefore be ambiguous.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A temperature scale on which the freezing point of water is 0° and its boiling point is 100° at standard atmospheric pressure.

   European recipes list oven temperatures in centigrade.

   The pilot read the outside air temperature in centigrade.

   Note

   The scale itself, usually treated as a mass noun. Temperatures are given in centigrade, and a reading can drop the word degrees altogether, as in a temperature of 34 centigrade. Capitalization varies: VOA Learning English wrote "one degree Centigrade" in 2018. Either form is acceptable as long as you use it consistently.

3. 3
   adjective

   Divided into one hundred parts between two fixed points.

   Engineers favored a centigrade gauge for its simple hundredfold divisions.

   The ruler followed a centigrade pattern between the two end points.

   Similarcentesimal

   Note

   A literal coinage: centi- means "hundred" and grade means "degree," so a centigrade scale is one with a hundred steps between its two fixed points. Centesimal is its close synonym. The adjective does not take more or less, because a scale either has those hundred divisions or it does not. Every other use of the word, from thermometers to angle measurement, grows from this one.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A system of angle measurement that divides a quadrant into 100 equal units called gradians, grads, or gons.

   Some continental surveying manuals express bearings in centigrade.

   The theodolite's outer ring was graduated in centigrade.

   Note

   Here the hundred parts divide a right angle rather than the gap between freezing and boiling. Each gradian, also called a grad or gon, is a hundredth of a quadrant, so a full turn measures 400 units instead of 360 degrees. Naming the unit directly, as gradians or gons, avoids any clash with the temperature meaning.

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