Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An organism, such as a mammal or bird, having a body temperature that is constant and largely independent of the temperature of its surroundings.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An animal with a bodily temperature which is nearly constant and independent of, and usually higher than, that of the surrounding medium; a warm-blooded animal.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Biol.) A homoiothermal animal.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A creature that maintains a
stable internal bodytemperature regardless of external influence.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an animal that has a body temperature that is relatively constant and independent of the environmental temperature
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Ancient Greek homoios, "similar", and thermē, "heat".
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Examples
-
Man is a "homeotherm" -- that is, our bodies try to maintain a constant body temperature irrespective of the temperature of their surroundings.
Bravo-Two-Zero McNab, Andy 1993
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To maintain a constant body temperature, a homeotherm must balance heat loss with heat production.
Endotherm 2008
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