climate change

noun

: significant and long-lasting change in the earth's climate and weather patterns

The half-tonne … turtles were thought to have died out 30,000 to 40,000 years ago because of climate change.

—New Scientist

especially, in current use : such change associated with global warming

Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change are renewed among scientists and the public with every new report about the possibility of melting icecaps and rising temperatures.

—Randy Showstack

Drought is a paleontological fact in the American West, but the latest desiccations have a new signature, and my region's climatologists, hydrologists, foresters, and water managers are nearly unanimous in their conviction that what we are seeing now is climate change, the anthropogenic kind, a consequence of too much CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

—Kenneth Brower

Examples of climate change in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Dating the pine trees in the mound indicates that it was constructed around 551 CE, with most of the trees being deposited approximately 15 years after the Dust Veil Event—a volcanic eruption that triggered significant climate change. —Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 29 Mar. 2026

Here, people live and work—about 150 per week in summer and up to 42 in winter—in an elevated two-story steel compound, studying astrophysics, neutrinos, glaciers, climate change, and some of the cleanest air on Earth. —Laura Dannen Redman, Robb Report, 29 Mar. 2026

One of the strategies for combatting climate change in the Tomorrow Garden is agroforestry, which integrates the cultivation of trees and crops together. —John Leos, AZCentral.com, 29 Mar. 2026

The race to deploy artificial intelligence is complicating tech companies’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from the burning of gas, oil and coal and drive climate change. —Tammy Webber, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for climate change

• arrange
• derange
• estrange
• exchange
• midrange
• grange
• mange
• range
• strange
• interchange
• rearrange

Kids Definition

climate change

noun

: significant and long-lasting change in the earth's climate and weather patterns

especially : such change associated with global warming