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

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Etymology

Origin of climb

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

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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

They are then heard saying the plane was "picking up precipitation" and "we need to climb".

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

The person said the plane was "picking up precipitation" and needed "to climb" shortly before saying: "Mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute."

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

Traders in leveraged ETFs can quickly find themselves deep in a hole that’s difficult to climb out from when their bets go the wrong way.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

Net sales are expected to climb 1% to 3%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

The climb was almost a dream, the rocky road under my feet, the road rising.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff

Back on the highway, the road climbs steadily, surpassing 8,000 feet near mile 15.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

Its premium climbs the longer a borrower keeps the oil, which only makes sense if oil is cheaper when it comes back.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026

Governments around the world are seeing the yields on their bonds jump to multi-decade highs as wider inflation climbs.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

That adventure led to dog-sledging through the Arctic, scuba diving, and multiple high summit climbs.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Before I find it, though, we reach Ruby’s stop and she climbs up.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

One store in Germany found that temperatures in its fridges climbed to above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing it to throw out a dumpster’s worth of yogurt, mozzarella balls and other dairy products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

Ruthin Coroner's Court heard Lloyd, from Bod Elian, Llanelian in Conwy, climbed down from the cab and was electrocuted when he came into contact with the metal step.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

It then climbed for three months before falling 12% by mid-October.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026

Lufthansa’s third-quarter revenue climbed 9% to 12.24 billion euros, marking the strongest quarterly revenue in the company’s history.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

We climbed out of the washout and started down a game trail.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

She has been allotted a third-floor apartment but climbing stairs is painful because of a metal rod in her leg after an operation.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

Bitcoin has recovered, climbing above $78,000 early Monday to trade down just 0.2% over the past 24 hours.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

Early in the film, Nelson tries to communicate the draw of climbing, and how fundamentally at odds it is with her role as a mother.

From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026

Eagerness to crowd into the AI trade in any way possible has cooled as banks have raised concerns over exposure and data-center delays, while climbing interest rates have made debt offerings less attractive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

My attention is divided between Emma, the boys climbing on the frogs, and a group of girls traipsing through the gate from the lakefront.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

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Related Words

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

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