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

Idaho Statesman 208-274-3538 Ian Max Stevenson covers state politics and climate change at the Idaho Statesman. —Ian Max Stevenson, Idaho Statesman, 14 Feb. 2025

The big picture: Record cocoa prices are driven by declining cocoa production from disruptive weather amplified by climate change and crop disease in West Africa. —Kelly Tyko, Axios, 14 Feb. 2025

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. —Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2025

Disruptive weather patterns fueled by climate change have hammered West Africa, where most of the world’s cacao, the raw form of the bean that gets processed into cocoa, is grown. —Maya Huter, NBC News, 13 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

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