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

Some are even extending their ranges to the Arctic — such as red foxes, lynxes and orcas — as tundras green from climate change. —Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 22 Feb. 2026

Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change, disasters and the environment for USA TODAY. —Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 22 Feb. 2026

Officials have sought to slash climate change programs and promote fossil fuel development. —Michael Phillis, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2026

The site posts news and commentary on climate change and other environmental issues affecting Florida. —Justin Tramble, The Orlando Sentinel, 21 Feb. 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