Specific Heat
Specific Heat, a measure of the heat required to raise the temperature of a given amount of a substance by one degree. It is best defined as a ratio, usually with water as the reference substance. Since it takes 0.11 times as much heat to raise the temperature of a given mass of iron by one degree as it takes to raise the temperature of an equal mass of water by one degree, iron has a specific heat of 0.11 (by definition, since it is the reference substance, water has a specific heat of 1.00).
Like iron, most substances have a specific heat lower than that of water, meaning that less heat is needed to raise their temperature than is needed to raise the temperature of water by the same amount. Most liquids have a specific heat less than half that of water and, in general, the specific heat of solids is lower than that of liquids.