Usage
What’s the difference between climatic and climactic? Climatic means relating to climate—the average atmospheric conditions that prevail in a given region over a long period of time—whether a place is generally cold and wet or hot and dry, for example. Climactic is used to describe things that involve or feel like a climax—the culmination or most intense part of a story or situation.Climactic is used in situations in which a peak of some kind is being reached, such as a climactic ending of a movie. The word anticlimactic is used—perhaps more commonly—to mean the opposite, such as when you expect something exciting to happen but it doesn’t.Climatic is not all that commonly used, especially because it has a much more narrow meaning. It’s typically used in scientific contexts involving climate and weather, like the climatic conditions of a region.You can keep their spellings straight by remembering that climactic comes from climax, so it needs that c in replacement of the x before the ending -tic. Climatic, on the other hand, is basically climate plus the ending -ic (with the e having been dropped).Here’s an example of climatic and climactic used correctly in a sentence.Example: Many people have failed to recognize the danger of the change in climatic conditions because the change has been a relatively gradual one, rather than a dramatic, climactic spike—but that may soon change.Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between climatic and climactic.
Other Word Forms
- climatically adverb
- subclimatic adjective
Etymology
Origin of climatic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The authors conclude that this combination of climatic disruption, famine, and grain transport offers a plausible explanation for how the Black Death began and spread across Europe.
From Science Daily
They used clues from tree rings and ice cores to examine climatic conditions at the time of the Black Death.
From BBC
Biting midges are most active from April to November and the potential for spread depends on climatic conditions and wind patterns with lower temperatures significantly reducing the risk, the department said.
From BBC
"The biggest surprise for me was that the abandonment of cities occurred under improving climatic conditions," Kennett noted.
From Science Daily
The outlook for 2025 confirms "a period of persistently reduced global supply, impacted by climatic challenges and evolving consumption models", it said.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
