katabatic

English

Alternative forms

• catabatic

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek καταιβατός (kataibatós, “down-going, descending”), from κατα- (kata-, “down”) + βαίνω (baínō, “to go”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæt.əˈbæt.ɪk/
• Rhymes: -ætɪk

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

katabatic (not comparable)

1. (meteorology, of airflow) Downslope on a mountainside.
   • 2005, Nicholas Johnson, chapter 3, in Big Dead Place, →ISBN:

     At the field camp, paper-thin tents shudder beneath katabatic blasts of freezing wind, stoves sputter a stingy flame, and a few trudging specks haul shovels through a cold world where extra food and equipment cannot be bought at any price.

   • 2006 February 24, Tishani Doshi, “Meanwhile: The long view from Antarctica”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Penguin colonies that number in millions; nights that run into days, and days that run into nights; katabatic winds that scream down the ice sheets at a terrifying 180 miles per hour, and then remain equally terrifyingly still.

Antonyms

• anabatic

Derived terms

• katabatic wind

Translations

Translations

• Hungarian: katabatikus
• Polish: katabatyczny
• Russian: нисходящий (ru) (nisxodjaščij)

Noun

katabatic (plural katabatics)

1. Short for katabatic wind.

Further reading

• katabatic wind on Wikipedia.Wikipedia