alcohol thermometer
- noun
- /ˈæl.kə.hɔːl θərˈmɑː.mɪ.tər/
:
termómetro de alcohol
- An alcohol thermometer is often used in laboratories to measure temperature accurately.
Examples
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To check the temperature of the liquid, she used an alcohol thermometer filled with red liquid.
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Galileo also invented the alcohol thermometer about 1611 or 1612.
Blog text (30) -
When learning about thermometers, students noticed how the alcohol thermometer operates differently than a mercury one.
Synonyms
A glass thermometer with alcohol that rises when it gets warm and falls when it gets cold
How Safe
- Specialized
74
3.0
- Archaic
1
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a thermometer that uses alcohol as the working liquid. The noun-noun combination (liquid + instrument) follows a common, cross-linguistically transparent compounding pattern, so a B1 learner who knows 'alcohol' and 'thermometer' can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Alcohol thermometer comes from the simple picture of a glass thermometer filled with alcohol that expands when it gets warm and rises in a thin tube. The rising, colored alcohol is the image people see to 'show the temperature', and because alcohol stays liquid at lower temperatures and is safer, the name now means 'a thermometer that uses alcohol'.