A novel sample holder is introduced which allows for temperature dependent soft x ray absorption spectroscopy of liquids in transmission mode. The setup is based on sample cells with x ray transmissive silicon nitride windows. A cooling circuit allows for temperature regulation of the sample liquid between amp; 8722;10 amp; 9702;C and 50 amp; 9702;C. The setup enables to record soft x ray absorption spectra of liquids in transmission mode with a temperature resolution of 0.5K and better. Reliability and reproducibility of the spectra are demonstrated by investigating the characteristic temperature induced changes in the oxygen K edge x ray absorption spectrum of liquid water. These are compared to the corresponding changes in the oxygen K edge spectra from x ray Raman scatterin
