Definition of "caloric" [ca•lor•ic]

• Of or relating to heat: the caloric effect of sunlight. (adjective)
• Of or relating to calories: the caloric content of foods. (adjective)
• A hypothetically indestructible, uncreatable, highly elastic, self-repellent, all-pervading fluid formerly thought responsible for the production, possession, and transfer of heat. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This modification of heat was discovered and named by Dr. Black long before the French chemists introduced the term caloric, and we must not presume to alter it, as it is still used by much better chemists than ourselves."
• "He proposed that work was generated by the passage of caloric from a warmer to a cooler body, with caloric being conserved in the process."
• "They rap along to the latest hip-hop hits, memorizing every lyric, so the music can definitely help them gain caloric literacy."