climate

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklaɪmɪt/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

climate (plural climates)

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 New York Times‎:

     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.

Verb

climate (third-person singular simple present climates, present participle climating, simple past and past participle climated)

1. (poetic, obsolete) To dwell.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, V. i. 169:

     The blessed gods / Purge all infection from our air whilst you / Do climate here!

Further reading

• climate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• climate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• climate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• amletic, metical

Noun

climate

1. ablative singular of clima