What it means
اقلیم (eqlim) means climate, or more broadly a geographic zone defined by its characteristic weather patterns. The word traveled a long route into Persian: it comes from Arabic إقليم (iqlim), which was borrowed from Greek κλίμα (klima), meaning slope or zone, referring to the ancient Greek idea that climate varied with the angle at which the sun’s rays struck the earth at different latitudes. In Persian, اقلیم is used primarily in formal, academic, and journalistic contexts, such as اقلیم گرم و خشک (eqlim-e garm o khoshk, hot and dry climate) or بحران اقلیمی (bohrân-e eqlimi, climate crisis). For everyday conversation about weather, Iranians use آبوهوا (âb-o-havâ, literally water and air) rather than eqlim, which sounds more like a geography textbook than a chat between friends.
How to use it
- ایران اقلیمهای خیلی متفاوتی داره. (Irân eqlim-hâ-ye kheyli motafâveti dâre.) “Iran has very diverse climates.”
- تغییرات اقلیمی یه بحران جهانیه. (taghyirât-e eqlimi ye bohrân-e jahâniye.) “Climate change is a global crisis.”
- این منطقه اقلیم مدیترانهای داره. (in manteqe eqlim-e mediterânei dâre.) “This region has a Mediterranean climate.”
- توی کلاس جغرافی درباره اقلیمهای مختلف خوندیم. (tu-ye kelâs-e joghrâfi darbâre-ye eqlim-hâ-ye mokhtalef khundim.) “In geography class we studied the different climate zones.”
Cultural note
Iran spans an extraordinary range of climate zones for a single country: from the humid subtropical Caspian coast to the hyper-arid central deserts, from the semi-arid steppe of the plateau to the cold alpine zones of the Alborz and Zagros ranges. This diversity makes اقلیم a word with genuine practical importance in Iranian geography education, where students learn about the country’s distinct اقلیمها (eqlim-hâ, climate zones) from an early age. The related term بحران اقلیمی (bohrân-e eqlimi, climate crisis) has entered mainstream Iranian news coverage in recent years as droughts and water scarcity have become pressing national issues.