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

Despite gains in keeping forest standing, however, many other threats, ranging from climate change to potential legislation on the horizon, are putting the forest at risk. —ABC News, 11 June 2026

Although El Niño generally raises global temperatures, climate change is the primary driver of record-breaking warmth in recent years. —Evan Bush, NBC news, 11 June 2026

The film explores the increasingly challenging coexistence of humans with polar bears – the world’s largest land predators – as climate change forces the mammals closer to human settlements to hunt for food, making dangerous encounters unavoidable. —Annika Pham, Variety, 11 June 2026

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. —Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 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