centigrade
Noun pluralcentigrades (some meanings)
Pluralcentigrades (some meanings)
- 1Measured on the temperature scale where water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees.
The thermometer read twenty degrees centigrade by noon.
Water boils at one hundred degrees centigrade at sea level.
SimilarCelsius
Note
- 2A temperature scale that puts water's freezing point at 0 degrees and its boiling point at 100 degrees.
Like a ladder with one hundred steps between where water freezes and where it boils.
Most countries give the weather in centigrade.
She converted the reading from Fahrenheit to centigrade.
Note
- 3Divided into one hundred equal parts between two fixed marks.
Like cutting a stick into one hundred equal pieces between its two ends.
A centigrade scale splits the gap into one hundred even steps.
The dial used a centigrade marking across its full range.
Similarcentesimal
Note
- 4A scale for measuring angles where a right angle is divided into one hundred equal parts.
Like splitting the corner of a square into one hundred small wedges.
Surveyors sometimes give angles in centigrade instead of degrees.
The compass was marked in centigrade for easier division.
Note
Less common meaning
- 5A single degree of temperature on the centigrade scale.
Like one small step on a thermometer marked from zero to one hundred.
A single centigrade separated the morning and evening readings.
The temperature dropped three centigrades overnight.
Note
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from centi-, meaning "hundred", plus grade, meaning "degree".