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
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
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
Kenneth Brower Examples of climate change in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
That is because many of the farm animals, which will become food, release methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
—Dave Smith, Fortune, 14 Aug. 2025
Such events are likely to happen more often as climate change destabilizes ice and glacial lakes fill with more meltwater
Meltwater from a glacial outburst near Juneau, Alaska, is flooding nearby neighborhoods, and officials are urging some residents of the city of 30,000 to evacuate.
—Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2025
Yet countries are already experiencing drought emerging as one of the most immediate and severe consequences of climate change.
—Pedro Dinezio, The Conversation, 13 Aug. 2025
Glacial outburst floods on the rise amid climate change
These glacial outbursts in Alaska are not a new phenomena and have been occurring annually in the Suicide Basin, sometimes more than once, since 2011.
—Doyle Rice, USA Today, 13 Aug. 2025
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Dave Smith, Fortune, 14 Aug. 2025
Such events are likely to happen more often as climate change destabilizes ice and glacial lakes fill with more meltwater
Meltwater from a glacial outburst near Juneau, Alaska, is flooding nearby neighborhoods, and officials are urging some residents of the city of 30,000 to evacuate.
—Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2025
Yet countries are already experiencing drought emerging as one of the most immediate and severe consequences of climate change.
—Pedro Dinezio, The Conversation, 13 Aug. 2025
Glacial outburst floods on the rise amid climate change
These glacial outbursts in Alaska are not a new phenomena and have been occurring annually in the Suicide Basin, sometimes more than once, since 2011.
—Doyle Rice, USA Today, 13 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for climate change
Cite this Entry
“Climate change.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/climate%20change. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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