different between climb vs clime

English

Etymology

From Middle English climben, from Old English climban (“to climb”), from Proto-West Germanic *klimban, from Proto-Germanic *klimban? (“to climb, go up by clinging”), believed to be a nasalised variant of Proto-Germanic *kliban?, *klib?n? (“to stick, cleave”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick”). Cognate with West Frisian klimme (“to climb”), Dutch klimmen (“to climb”), German klimmen (“to climb”), Old Norse klembra (“to squeeze”), Icelandic klifra (“to climb”). Related to clamber. See also clay, glue.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kla?m/, [k?la?m]
• Rhymes: -a?m
• Homophone: clime

Verb

climb (third-person singular simple present climbs, present participle climbing, simple past climbed or (archaic) clomb, past participle climbed or (archaic) clumb)

1. (intransitive) To ascend; rise; to go up.

   Prices climbed steeply.

   • Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.

2. (transitive) To mount; to move upwards on.

   They climbed the mountain.

   Climbing a tree

3. (transitive) To scale; to get to the top of something.
4. (transitive) To move (especially up and down something) by gripping with the hands and using the feet.
   • 1900, James Frazer, The Golden Bough Chapter 65

     A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

     She thought she must have been mistaken at first, for none of the scarecrows in Kansas ever wink; but presently the figure nodded its head to her in a friendly way. Then she climbed down from the fence and walked up to it, while Toto ran around the pole and barked.
5. (intransitive) to practise the sport of climbing
6. (intransitive) to jump high
7. To move to a higher position on the social ladder.
8. (botany) Of plants, to grow upwards by clinging to something.

Usage notes

In the past, the forms clomb and clumb were encountered as simple past and past participle forms; these forms are now archaic or dialectal.

Synonyms

(get to the top of):

• scale

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

climb (plural climbs)

1. An act of climbing.
2. The act of getting to somewhere more elevated.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     The Mur de Péguère is a savage little climb, its last four kilometres a narrow tunnel of trees and excited spectators urging on the straining riders.

   • 1999, B. Keith Jones, The Roomie Do Me Blues

     I guess the room wasn't so bad, except for the climb to get there. The stairs were destined to be a serious health hazard.

3. An upwards struggle

Derived terms

• rate of climb

Translations

Italian

Etymology

From English climb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?klajm/, /?klajmb/

Noun

climb m (usually invariable, plural climbs)

1. (aviation) variometer, rate-of-climb indicator

   Synonym: variometro

English

Etymology

From Latin clima, from Ancient Greek ????? (klíma, “(zone of) latitude”, literally “inclination”), from ????? (klín?, “to slope, incline”). See also climate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kla?m/
• Rhymes: -a?m
• Homophone: climb

Noun

clime (countable and uncountable, plural climes)

1. A particular region defined by its weather or climate.

   After working hard all of his life, Max retired to warmer climes in Florida.

   • 1764, Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society, page 9:

     My ?oul turn from them, turn we to ?urvey
     Where rougher climes a nobler race di?play,

2. Climate.

   A change of clime was exactly what the family needed.

Anagrams

• melic