thermodynamics

/ˌθɜrmoʊdɑɪˈnæmɪks/

Thermodynamics is the study of energy, particularly heat energy. A physicist who's interested in the way temperature relates to energy and work might concentrate on thermodynamics.

If you take a physics class, you'll come across the term thermodynamics. The study of heat energy and how it works originally focused on early steam engines, which powered trains in the 19th century. The word itself was coined in the mid-1800s and originally hyphenated, thermo-dynamics, from two Greek roots, therme, "heat," and dynamis, "power" or "energy."

Definitions of thermodynamics

1. noun

   the branch of physics concerned with the conversion of different forms of energy
   types:

   thermodynamics of equilibrium, thermostatics

   the aspect of thermodynamics concerned with thermal equilibrium

   type of:

   natural philosophy, physics

   the science of matter and energy and their interactions