climb

American  

[klahym] / klaɪm /

verb (used without object)

climbs, present (3rd person singular) climbed, past participle, past climbing present participle

1. to go up or ascend, especially by using the hands and feet or feet only.

   She climbed up the ladder.

   Antonyms:

   descend

2. to rise slowly by or as if by continued effort.

   The car climbed laboriously to the top of the mountain.

3. to ascend or rise.

   The plane climbed rapidly and we were soon at 35,000 feet.

   Temperatures climbed into the 80s yesterday.

4. to slope upward.

   The road climbs steeply up to the house.

5. (of a plant) to ascend by twining or by means of tendrils, adhesive tissues, etc..

   The ivy climbed to the roof.

6. to proceed or move by using the hands and feet, especially on an elevated place; crawl.

   to climb along a branch;

   to climb around on the roof.

7. to ascend in prominence, fortune, etc..

   From lowly beginnings he climbed to the highest office in the land.

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verb (used with object)

climbs, present (3rd person singular) climbed, past participle, past climbing present participle

1. to ascend, go up, or get to the top of, especially by the use of the hands and feet or feet alone or by continuous or strenuous effort.

   to climb a rope;

   to climb the stairs;

   to climb a mountain.

   Antonyms:

   descend

2. to go to the top of and over.

   The prisoners climbed the wall and escaped.

noun

climbs plural

1. a climbing; an ascent by climbing.

   It was a long climb to the top of the hill.

   Antonyms:

   descent

2. a place to be climbed.

   That peak is quite a climb.

verb phrase

1. climb down

   1. to descend, especially by using both hands and feet.

      She climbed down from the treehouse and went to wash up for supper.

   2. Chiefly British. to retreat from a policy, opinion, position in a debate, etc..

      He climbed down from that argument once he saw that it was based on incorrect data.

2. climb the walls to become tense or frantic.

   After a week stuck inside the house, the kids were climbing the walls.

climb British  

/ klaɪm /

verb

1. to go up or ascend (stairs, a mountain, etc)

2. (often foll by along) to progress with difficulty

   to climb along a ledge

3. to rise to a higher point or intensity

   the temperature climbed

4. to incline or slope upwards

   the road began to climb

5. to ascend in social position

6. (of plants) to grow upwards by twining, using tendrils or suckers, etc

7. informal (foll by into) to put (on) or get (into)

8. to be a climber or mountaineer

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noun

1. the act or an instance of climbing

2. a place or thing to be climbed, esp a route in mountaineering

Synonym Usage

Climb, ascend, mount, scale imply a moving upward. To climb is to make one's way upward, often with effort: to climb a mountain. Ascend, in its literal meaning (“to go up”), is general, but it now usually suggests a gradual or stately movement, with or without effort, often to a considerable degree of altitude: to ascend the heights; to ascend the Himalayas. Mount may be interchangeable with ascend, but also suggests climbing on top of or astride of: to mount a platform, a horse. Scale, a more literary word, implies difficult or hazardous climbing up or over something: to scale a summit.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• reclimb
  verb (used with object)
• climbable
  adjective
• half-climbing
  adjective
• nonclimbable
  adjective
• nonclimbing
  adjective
• unclimbable
  adjective
• unclimbed
  adjective
• unclimbing
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• climbs
  plural

Participles

• climbing
  present
• climbed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• climb
  simple
• climbs
  simple
• have climbed
  perfect
• has climbed
  perfect
• am climbing
  progressive
• are climbing
  progressive
• is climbing
  progressive
• have been climbing
  perfect progressive
• has been climbing
  perfect progressive

Past

• climbed
  simple
• had climbed
  perfect
• was climbing
  progressive
• were climbing
  progressive
• had been climbing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will climb
  simple
• will have climbed
  perfect
• will be climbing
  progressive
• will have been climbing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of climb

First recorded before 1000; Middle English climben, Old English climban; cognate with Dutch, German klimmen; akin to clamber

Explanation

To climb is to go higher. When you ascend a mountain, you climb it, and when a song rises in popularity, it climbs the charts. To climb something generally takes hard work, which is clear when you watch a toddler climb a jungle gym or a mountaineer climb a sheer rock wall. You can also climb things metaphorically, like when a soldier climbs the ranks from corporal to major. Prices can climb too, when they get higher, and you can climb a social ladder when you meet well-connected people at parties. The Germanic root is klimban, "go up by clinging."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

climb climbs climbed climbing

The 83-year-old retired financial adviser wanted to pare some of his holdings, doubtful that prices could climb much higher in the near term.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Still, legal experts say the states may face an uphill climb to detrail the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger because the arrival of Netflix, Amazon and Apple dramatically shifted the landscape.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

As brightly coloured kites climb above Burin, a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, children race across a sun-baked hillside, watching their creations soar into the sky.

From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026

The speedy climb in National Rally ranks that has characterised his political career seems to have stalled.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

It was too steep to climb, and too hard to cut through.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

SpaceX climbs, on pace to become the fifth largest U.S. company, surpassing Amazon’s market cap.

From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026

As demand for AI climbs, hyperscalers such as Anthropic, Google and Meta are looking for infrastructure that ties in all their needs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Its engines fire and it climbs into the skies over the Gulf of Mexico to cheers and screams in the SpaceX control room.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

She climbs, she crawls, she leaps, she runs like the Santa Ana wind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

She climbs gingerly back down, stepping over the chickens, marches to the sugar tin, and picks up my envelope.

From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron

This next chart shows what has happened to the S&P 500’s forward 12-month returns after the increased rate of margin borrowing has climbed into the 10th decile, where it stands currently.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

But thanks to the energy and tech sectors, expectations have actually climbed heading into second-quarter results.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

According to legend, Mallory climbed the church tower at the age of seven and there are numerous stained glass windows in memory of members of his family.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

The towering stainless steel rocket, standing taller than a 30 story building, ignited all 33 of its engines and climbed into the sky.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026

Then I climbed back up and kept an eye on my father.

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell

Brent crude futures jumped 9.6% to settle at $83.30 a barrel, the largest daily percentage gain since May 2020, when prices were climbing back from the Covid lockdown crash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Messi suffered the pain of defeat when Argentina lost to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil, finally climbing the peak in Qatar with a dramatic win on penalties against France.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

Brent crude rises 4.7% to $78.42 a barrel, while WTI futures are up 5.9% to $74.61 a barrel after climbing more than 6% shortly before.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

By 10, she was signed up for a climbing academy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

The tests were many, but Tao Tao persisted in finding food and shelter and climbing trees all on his own.

From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh

Related Words

• ascend
• clamber
• go up
• mount
• rise
• scale
• soar
• top