water cycle

British  

noun

1. Also called: hydrologic cycle.  the circulation of the earth's water, in which water evaporates from the sea into the atmosphere, where it condenses and falls as rain or snow, returning to the sea by rivers or returning to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration

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water cycle Scientific  

1. See hydrologic cycle

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Example Sentences

These problems are compounded by climate change, which is upending the water cycle and bringing more severe droughts and floods.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 21, 2026

“The rapid water cycle change that the planet has experienced over the last decade has unleashed a wave of rapid drying.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 3, 2025

And the water cycle now is not just a geophysical but also a sort of moral and political and bodily phenomenon for us as humans.

From Salon • May 28, 2025

“Understanding the Martian water cycle is critical for understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior,” said lead researcher Dr Vashan Wright, from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

From BBC • Aug. 12, 2024

For example, urban hydrology—precisely what happens to the water cycle during various kinds of development, and how it might be adjusted—is a relatively new branch of study and still needs much research.

From The Nation's River A report on the Potomac from the U.S. Department of the Interior by United States. Dept. of the Interior.