Revised as of
6 Sept 2022
What a difference a c makes! No, no, I meant the letter c, not see, although what you saw could be one or the other! Of course, sea could be climatic as well, just not as exciting, climactically…unless there’s a storm…
Climactic is sudden, a quick explosion, and it’s gone. Don’t you hate when that happens??
Climatic, on the other hand, is what you experience day to day. The climate of your area. Sure sometimes your climate throws out some climactical weather, i.e., hurricanes, tsunamis, blizzards, flooding, tornadoes, but that’s just part of the climatic pattern for your area.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Climactic | Climatic |
|---|---|
Apocalypse Wow by keiblack is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. — Whoa, this looks climactic! |
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Frederiksholms kanal – Nikolaj kirke by Charlotte S H Jensen from København, Danmark, is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — I reckon this frozen canal is climatic for Denmark in December. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective | Adjective |
| Great intensity
[Of an action, event, or scene] Exciting or thrilling and acting as the most intense, exciting, or important point of something to a series of events Consisting of, involving, or causing an intense, exciting, or important point of something Forming a climax |
Weather conditions
Of or relating to climate [Of ecological phenomena] Due to climate rather than to soil or topography |
| Examples: | |
| The film’s climactic scenes signaled the end.
That couple in the hotel room next to us were quite climactic. “When he chooses to cap a climactic chase scene with yet another baffling fall, we feel cheated” (Smith). “At a climactic moment in the scene, Wilson realizes his cousin Ruggles is of mixed race” (Ciabattari). “We’re now heading into the climactic weekend of the election” (Frum). |
Under certain climatic conditions, desert locusts increase in number.
“The rapid vacillations of climatic conditions were deadly to most forms of life” (Romeo). Pay attention to the prevailing climatic conditions when deciding where you want to retire. “A climatic narrative that encompasses the backstabbing politics of Washington, D.C., with the thrill of international espionage” (This). Frost: “The thing was the sessions, the Watergate session, which is one climatic, incredibly powerful scene in the film” (Evans). |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: climacteric, climax, nonclimactic, nonclimactical, unclimactic Adverb: climactically Noun: climacteric, climax |
Adjective: climatical, subclimatic Adverb: climatically Noun: climate |
| History of the Word: | |
| Late 19th century and formed irregularly from climax + -ic, probably influenced by climacteric. | 1828, from climate + -ic. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Climactic versus Climatic
Apple Dictionary.com
Ciabattari, Jane. “The Devil and Woodrow Wilson: An Interview With Joyce Carol Oates.” The Daily Beast. 19 March 2013. Web. n.d.
Dictionary.com: climactic, climatic
Evans, Harry. “David Frost on Frost/Nixon.” The Daily Beast. 6 Dec 2008. Web. n.d. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/david-frost-on-frostnixon?source=dictionary>.
Frum, David. “A Pre-Election Challenge for ‘Real’ Conservatives.” The Daily Beast. 2 Nov 2012. Web. n.d.
Romeo, Nick. “It’s the End of the World but We’ll Be Fine.” The Daily Beast. 18 May 2013. Web. n.d.
Smith, Wendy. “Tim Winton’s Beautiful, Baffling ‘Eyrie’.” The Daily Beast. 18 Aug 2014. Web. n.d.
“This Week’s Hot Reads.” The Daily Beast. 22 Nov 2010. Web. n.d.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Tsunami, <https://visualhunt.com/f2/photo/15080293142/13b7792525/>, by Chill Mimi, <https://visualhunt.com/author/41e78c>, is under the CC BY-2.0 license, via VisualHunt.
