A change in the weather: Climactic vs. climatic

Once you know the difference between climactic and climatic, fireworks will go off.

Climactic refers to the high point of something, such as the climax of a novel or something that’s orgasmic. It comes from the noun climax, except the x has been turned to a ct to get an adjective: Suddenly, a climactic crash of thunder reverberated across Chicago.

Climatic refers to the weather. It comes from the noun climate, as in: The years-long drought across Southern California is a climatic disaster.

Hopefully, such knowledge now will bring about a wind of change in some writers’ word usage.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.