Climate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈklaɪmɪt/

Origin

From French climat, from Latin clima, from Ancient Greek κλίμα ("inclination"), from κλίνω ("to slope, incline") (from which also cline), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean).

Full definition of climate

Noun

1. (obsolete) An area of the earth's surface between two parallels of latitude.
2. (obsolete) A region of the Earth.
3. The long-term manifestations of weather and other atmospheric conditions in a given area or country, now usually represented by the statistical summary of its weather conditions during a period long enough to ensure that representative values are obtained (generally 30 years).
4. (figuratively) The context in general of a particular political, moral etc. situation.Industries that require a lot of fossil fuels are unlikely to be popular in the current political climate.
• 2012, November 7, Matt Bai, Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, In polling by the Pew Research Center in November 2008, fully half the respondents thought the two parties would cooperate more in the coming year, versus only 36 percent who thought the climate would grow more adversarial.

Derived terms

• acclimate
• acclimatise, acclimatize
• climate change
• political climate

Related terms

• climatic
• climatory
• cline
• lean

Verb

1. (poetic, obsolete) To dwell.
• 1610, William Shakespeare, , V. i. 169:The blessed gods
  Purge all infection from our air whilst you
  Do climate here!

Anagrams

• metical