- pronunciation:
- klaI
miht
- features:
- Word History, Word Explorer
| part of speech: |
noun |
| definition: |
The climate of a place is the usual weather and temperature in that place. If where you live has a warm climate, it means that the weather is usually warm. Sometimes when people talk about "the climate," they mean the weather and temperature of the whole world.
We can't grow oranges here because the climate isn't right for the orange trees. It's much too cold for them.- similar words:
- weather
|
| related words: |
element, environment |
| derivations: |
climatic (adj.), climatically (adv.) |
Climate is from an ancient Greek word that means "slope of the earth" or "region of the earth." The Greeks believed that the earth sloped from the equator to the north and south poles. They divided the earth into zones, and each zone was called a
klima. By the 1600s, "climate" was being used in English for weather conditions.