Meanings
- A scandal involving the theft of computer records in November, 2009 which contained information about climate change research conducted at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, England.
The "Climategate" computer hacking scandal that rocked the scientific world is to be made into a BBC film.
2021 June 9, “University of East Anglia 'Climategate' scandal to be turned into film”, in BBC News2 more examples
Over the Copenhagen climate conference lies the shadow of “Climategate,” emails and documents hacked from a server at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England.
2009 December 11, Laura Blenkinsop, “Climategate': A primer on the email scandal”, in National Post, archived from the original on 29 Jun 2013And that raises a critical question: did Climategate play a role in this failure to act? Some observers believe it did and, as an illustration, point to the fate of the Copenhagen climate summit[…]which took place only a few weeks after the leaking of the CRU’s emails.
2019 November 9, Robin McKie, “Climategate 10 years on: what lessons have we learned?”, in The Guardian
Origin
From climate + -gate, popularized by climate change denialist James Delingpole.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 氣候門 /气候门
- 氣候門 /气候门 (qìhòumén)scandal
Finnish Climategate
- Climategatescandal
Japanese クライメートゲート
- クライメートゲートscandal
Cite this entry
Climategate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Climategate
“Climategate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Climategate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Climategate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Climategate.
Source: Climategate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.