Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtɛmpəɹət/
- Hyphenation: temp‧pe‧rate
Adjective
temperate (comparative more temperate, superlative most temperate)
- Moderate; not excessive.
temperate heat
- He has a temperate demeanour ― He is a calm person.
c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:She is not hot, but temperate as the morn.
1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 19:"Even in his most temperate moments he is constantly felling people with a hunting-crop."
- Specifically, moderate in temperature.
These trees can only grow in temperate climates.
1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
- Moderate in the indulgence of the natural appetites or passions
temperate in eating and drinking.
- August 9, 1768, Benjamin Franklin, To John Alleyne, Esq. On Early Marriages
- Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy.
1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, pages 14–15:I am a temperate man and have made it a rule not to drink before luncheon. But I was so much ashamed of my first feeling about Gorman that I thought it well to break my rule. […] I gave my vote for whisky and soda as the more thorough-going drink of the two. A cocktail is seldom more than a mouthful.
- Proceeding from temperance.
- Dependent on life in a temperate climate.
temperate fishes
Translations
moderate; not excessive heat, climate
moderate in the indulgence of the natural appetites or passions
proceeding from temperance
Translations to be checked
Verb
temperate (third-person singular simple present temperates, present participle temperating, simple past and past participle temperated)
- (obsolete) To render temperate; to moderate
- Synonyms: soften, temper
1613, John Marston, The Insatiate Countess:It inflames temperance, and temp'rates wrath.
Translations
(obsolete) to render temperate