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

See Examples For:

water cycle

“Because of climate change, it is impacting the way the water cycle is behaving.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2026

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

This switch is driven by a warming world speeding up the water cycle and allowing the atmosphere to hold more water.

From BBC ● May 27, 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

To the thousands upon thousands of trained hydrologists, meteorologists and agronomists of the federal agencies of agriculture, interior and commerce fell the task of manipulating and guiding the delicate balance of the world's water cycle.

From The Thirst Quenchers by Rick Raphael