A moderate and proportionable mixture of elements or ingredients in a compound; the condition in which elements are mixed in their proper proportions
Your temperament is your basic nature, especially as it is shown in the way that you react to situations or to other people. His impulsive temperament regularly got him into difficulties She was furtive and vicious by temperament
A way of tuning a diatonic scale to produce particular effects See the entries for equal and meantone temperaments and just tuning
an adjustment of the intervals (as in tuning a keyboard instrument) so that the scale can be used to play in different keys excessive emotionalism or irritability and excitability (especially when displayed openly)
The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc
a person's distinctive tendency to show a particular mood and a particular intensity and duration of emotions
This scale, although in so far artificial, is yet closely suggestive of its origin in nature, and this system of tuning, although not mathematically true, yet satisfies the ear, while it has the convenience that the same twelve fixed tones answer for every key or scale, C♯ becoming identical with D♭, and so on
The adjustment of the intervals of the scale in keyboard instruments so as to adapt them to the purposes of practical harmony: consisting in slight variations of the pitch of the notes from true or "just" intonation in order to make them available in different keys
A system of compromises in the tuning of organs, pianofortes, and the like, whereby the tones generated with the vibrations of a ground tone are mutually modified and in part canceled, until their number reduced to the actual practicable scale of twelve tones to the octave
implying a predominance of one of these fluids and a corresponding influence on the temperament
pattern of emotional responses considered to be mostly hereditary or constitutional
A person's way of responding to the world Examples of temperament include shy, bold, risk taking, and cautious