climate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the weather in some location averaged over some long period of time
    clime.
    • the dank climate of southern Wales
    • plants from a cold clime travel best in winter
  2. noun the prevailing psychological state
    mood.
    • the climate of opinion
    • the national mood had changed radically since the last election

WordNet

Cli"mate noun
Etymology
F. climat, L. clima, -atis, fr. Gr. , , slope, the supposed slope of the earth (from the equator toward the pole), hence a region or zone of the earth, fr. to slope, incline, akin to E. lean, v. i. See Lean, v. i., and cf. Clime.
Definitions
  1. (Anc. Geog.) One of thirty regions or zones, parallel to the equator, into which the surface of the earth from the equator to the pole was divided, according to the successive increase of the length of the midsummer day.
  2. The condition of a place in relation to various phenomena of the atmosphere, as temperature, moisture, etc., especially as they affect animal or vegetable life.
Cli"mate intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To dwell. Poetic Shak.

Webster 1913