which is the us english term for thermal energy
Thermal energy is a term used loosely as a synonym for more rigorously-defined thermodynamic quantities such as the internal energy of a system; heat or sensible heat, which are defined as types of transfer of energy (as is work); or for the characteristic energy of a degree of freedom in a thermal system k T (\ displaystyle kT), where T (\ displaystyle T) is temperature and k (\ displaystyle k) is the Boltzmann constant.