Climates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Various conditions of temperature, humidity, and precipitation in specific geographic areas impact both natural ecosystems and human behavior significantly
2. Distinct weather conditions across various regions, including temperature and precipitation patterns, play a crucial role in shaping both ecosystems and human societies
3. The usual patterns of temperature, rainfall, and other weather elements typical to a particular area over extended periods

Etymology: The most striking thing about "climates" is that the ancient Greek word behind it, "klima", meant a slope or angle rather than weather. Greek geographers used it for a band of latitude: the sun's rays strike the earth at a steeper or shallower inclination as you move north or south, and that angle was what defined a zone. The Greek word came from "klinein", "to incline or lean," which is why the original sense is about tilt. The word passed into Latin as "clima" and then into Old French as "climat," and English borrowed it in the Middle Ages with the same sense of a geographical zone. Only later did it come to mean the typical weather of a region, since the zones were understood by their temperatures and conditions. "Climates" is simply the plural of that noun, so it refers to several such regional patterns at once.

Synonyms: weather, atmosphere, environment, conditions

Antonyms: heavens, sky