Meaning & use
thermostat
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A device that automatically keeps a room or system at a chosen temperature by turning heating or cooling on and off.
Grammar: Countable: one thermostat, two thermostats.
Patterns
- set the thermostat to something
- adjust the thermostat
- the thermostat turns on/off
I set the thermostat to 68 degrees before going to bed.
The thermostat turns the heat off when the room gets warm enough.
If you're cold, just adjust the thermostat on the wall.
Word forms
| plural | thermostats |
|---|
Common combinations
- set the thermostat
- She set the thermostat to 72 and waited for the house to warm up.
- adjust the thermostat
- You can adjust the thermostat from your phone with this app.
- digital thermostat
- We replaced the old dial with a digital thermostat.
- thermostat setting
- The thermostat setting was too high, so the room felt like an oven.
- turn up/down the thermostat
- Could you turn down the thermostat? It's boiling in here.
Synonyms and how they differ
- temperature control
- A more general term for any system that manages temperature, not necessarily a small device.
- thermoregulator
- A technical synonym used in engineering; too formal for everyday speech.
Word family
- thermostatic adjective
- Relating to or controlled by a thermostat, as in 'thermostatic valve'.
Commonly confused: thermostat or thermometer?
thermostat vs thermometer
A thermometer only measures temperature; a thermostat controls it by switching heating or cooling on and off.
Practice
It's too hot in here. Could you ______ the thermostat?
Choose one answer.
'Turn down' means lower the setting, which fits 'too hot'. 'Turn up' would make it hotter, 'turn off' would stop the system completely, and 'turn over' means flip something.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “thermostat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.