calorific

UK/ˌkæləˈɹɪf.ɪk/US/ˌkæləˈɹɪf.ɪk/

adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Calorific means containing a great deal of energy as food. A calorific pudding.

In science it means producing heat, and the food sense borrowed that. Calorific value is measured by burning the food and recording the heat, which is exactly as blunt as it sounds.

Definitions of calorific

1adjectivecalorificContaining a great deal of energy as food.C2
“The pudding was calorific beyond anybody's estimate.”

calorific is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin calorificus, from calor, heat, plus facere, to make.

Latin
calorificus
French
calorifique
English, today
calorific

From French calorifique or Latin calorificus, from calor + -i- + -ficus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

calorific in the wild

Due to reduced production from the Groningen gas field in the Netherlands, Belgium had to switch from low-calorific gas (L-gas) to high-calorific gas (H-gas).
Fluxys
The calorific value is the total energy released as heat when a substance undergoes complete combustion with oxygen under standard conditions.
Heat of combustion
The Wobbe index also requires the addition of propane to some upgraded biomethane products, particularly in regions where natural gas has a high calorific value such as Sweden.
Wobbe index
The plant is currently undergoing a process of adaptation to the higher calorific value of hard coal due to the end of lignite extraction in the local mine.
Endesa Termic
ISO 15971 is an ISO standard for calorific value measurement of natural gas and its substitutes.
ISO 15971

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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