Definition of "temperature gradient" []

• The rate of change of temperature with displacement in a given direction from a given reference point. (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.

• "In 1811, the French physicist Baron Jean Baptiste Fourier derived a mathematical expression describing the propagation of heat in solids by which the flow of heat along a rod is directly proportional to the temperature gradient along that rod."
• "The vessel's normal cruising depth was just below the thermocline, a natural temperature gradient that distorted sonar reflections from above and made the sub invisible to surface radar."