climber
Americannoun
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climbers
plural
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a person or thing that climbs.
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a climbing plant.
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a device to assist in climbing, as a climbing iron.
noun
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a person or thing that climbs
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a plant that lacks rigidity and grows upwards by twining, scrambling, or clinging with tendrils and suckers
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short for social climber
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of climber
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at climb, -er 1
Explanation
A climber is a person who hikes up steep, rocky mountains and hills. If you want to be a mountain climber, you should start with small ones before tackling Mount Everest. Climbers pull themselves up the steep, craggy sides of mountains or practice on rock walls at the gym. A person who aspires to belong to a fancier social group is another kind of climber: "He's hanging out with the rich kids again — I didn't realize he was such a climber." When you're talking about plants, a climber is anything vine-like that grows up structures: "That rose is a climber. It'll cover your fence by the end of the summer."
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.
See Examples For:
An injured climber crawled down a portion of Mt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
They retrieved the bodies of Nadhira Al Harthy, the first Omani woman to climb Everest, and Pur Bahadur Gurung, a Nepalese climber who had summited 12 of the world's 14 highest peaks.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
But it is stage vet Carrie Coon who has the most provocative role: that of nimble social climber Bertha Russell, whose ambition knows no limits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
A well-known amateur rock climber who had set at least two known speed-climbing records at Yosemite National Park died in a climbing accident at Sequoia National Park last week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Climbing the giant swells, the boat clung to the sea anchors like a mountain climber to a rope.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
The climbers who'd been heading up K2 with Mingma G were unsettled, he says, and facing pressure from their families to go home.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
One of the Broad Peak climbers, Wang Zhong, was a close friend and a client.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Nims's team of climbers had joined others to form a larger group of 10 that was making its way up Broad Peak.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
They have also tried to stop poorly equipped climbers from summitting and mandating that visitors spend at least one night at one of the huts on the trails.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
And while they were at it, the government ministers jacked up the permit fee once again—this time to $70,000 for up to seven climbers, plus another $10,000 for each additional climber.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
