calorie
calorie Lexical Profile
calorie Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A unit of energy used in nutrition to measure the energy value of food and the energy expended by the body, equal to the heat needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius (a kilocalorie).
"The nutrition label indicates that a single serving of this cereal contains 210 calories."
In physics and chemistry, a unit of heat energy equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius (also called a small calorie or gram calorie).
"In standard thermodynamic calculations, the joule has largely replaced the small calorie as the preferred unit of heat."
Word Nuance & Usage
In everyday contexts and nutrition labeling, a "calorie" (sometimes capitalized as Calorie) actually refers to a kilocalorie—equal to 1,000 small scientific calories—which measures the energy content of food.
• Rhymes for calorie
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-19th century from French calorie, coined by chemist Nicolas Clément from Latin calor, meaning "heat" or "warmth."