temperature

Multiple Entries:
  temperature    inversion  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
temperature/ˈtemprətʃə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 the degree or intensity of heat present in a substance or object.

  ■ a body temperature above the normal: he was running a temperature.

• 2 the degree of excitement or tension in a situation or discussion: the temperature of the debate was lower than before.

– origin ME (in sense ‘the state of being tempered or mixed’, later synonymous with temperament): from Fr. température or L. temperatura, from temperare ‘restrain’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
inversion/ɪnˈvɜːʃn/

▶noun

• 1 the action of inverting or the state of being inverted.

  ■ reversal of the normal order of words, typically for rhetorical effect.

• 2 Music an inverted interval, chord, or phrase.

• 3 (also temperature or thermal inversion) a reversal of the normal decrease of air temperature with altitude, or of water temperature with depth.

• 4 Mathematics the process of finding an inverse or reciprocal quantity from a given one.

• 5 Chemistry a reaction causing a change from one optically active configuration to the opposite configuration.

• 6 (also sexual inversion) Psychology, dated homosexuality.

– derivatives
inversive adjective.