Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Climber |
ClimberNoun1. A vine or climbing plant that readily grows up a support or over other plants. 2. Someone seeking social prominence by obsequious behavior. 3. Someone who ascends on foot; "a solitary mounter of the staircase". 4. Someone who climbs as a sport. 5. An iron spike attached to the shoe to prevent slipping on ice when walking or climbing. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "climber" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Biology & Biotechnology | Any plant that grows up trees or other supports, either by twining around them or attaching itself to them by e. g. tendrils, hooks, aerial roots. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Climbing is going up, or, depending on context, also down. It may refer to aircraft, a land vehicle, and humans and animals. On land, in particular it refers to steep climbs, e.g. on a hill, mountain or stairs, in a pole or tree, etc.
Climbing without a vehicle is often done as a sport or recreation. Often the emphasis is on balance and agility over brute force. Climbing can take place outdoors on real rock faces, or indoors on synthetically constructed climbing walls.
Shorter climbs can often be done with anchors and rope that are placed at the top of the climb before the climbers ascend. This type of climbing is called "top-rope" climbing. Longer climbs are normally done placing safety anchors during the ascent. This method is called "lead" climbing.
To make lead climbing safe, climbers will often climb in pairs. The leader will climb first climbing up and placing protection as they go. When the leader has finished the route the other climber in the pair, the second, will climb and will remove the protection that the leader placed.
Nearly all climbers follow the known climbing routes that are described in guidebookss. The most experienced and adventurous will attempt to establish new routes and make the first ascents of them.
Categories by type of terrain
- Mountaineering is climbing mountains and may sometimes include rock or ice climbs.
- Rock climbing is vertical or horizontal motion over steep rocky terrain.
- Bouldering is vertical or horizontal motion over boulders.
- Indoor climbing is vertical or horizontal movement over artificially constructed walls and grips. Routes are of varying difficulty are often indicated using differently coloured holds.
- Ice climbing is climbing over frozen water features.
- Buildering (pun on bouldering) is climbing the outside of buildings. This is often illegal.
- Recreational tree climbing uses ropes, a saddle and other gear (no spikes or gaffs) to safely scale a tree without causing it harm.
Categories by use of protection to ascend
- Aid climbing: any means of gettings yourself and your equipment up the rock face is permitted. You can place gear into cracks and features on the rock and pull on the gear or stand in it in order to achieve ascent. Aid climbing may be the only way (yet!) to climb some very steep terrain.
- Free climbing: the only means of propelling yourself up the rock is your own body. Ropes and other gear are only used to protect the climb, they are not pulled on or weighted in order to actually climb.
Styles of climbing by level or type of protection
- Solo climbing (sometimes "free solo") is climbing without ropes and without equipment and is not to be confused with free climbing.
- Traditional climbing where the leader places temporary protection that does not alter the rock and the second climber removes it again.
- Sport climbing is climbing on routes that are protected entirely by bolts drilled into the rock. The protection is (generally) reliable, little equipment is needed. Generally people can push themselves more on sport routes.
Competitions
Competitions are usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are two main categories.As an additional handicap, a climber may have to climb a route on sight. This means he is not allowed to see other climbers try to climb the route, and has only a limited amount of time to visually inspect the climb from ground level.
- Rotpunkt: competitors climb the same route one after the other. The highest grip they are able to reach counts. A competition usually consists of 3 routes with ascending difficulty level.
- Race to the top: on two identical routes, competitors race each other to the top. The first to reach the top wins.
Grading
There are different ranking systems for competitive climbers.Climbers grade the difficulty of the routes they climb. The grading system used varies from country to country (and region) and according to the style of climb. See also grade (bouldering).
See also
- List of climbers
- List of climbing topics
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Climbing."
Synonyms: ClimberSynonyms: climbing iron (n), crampon (n), crampoon (n), mounter (n), social climber (n). (additional references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Lone Climber (1950) Ice Climber (1984) The Climber (1983) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
![]() | This fast growing climber is a fairly common tender perennial species that produces two inch, pinkish blue flowers in mid to late Summer. They provide quick covers for lattice, trellis, arbor and chain-link fence, and are a favorite food source for butter. Credit: Dot Paul. | ![]() | A Woman's place is at the top : Annie Smith Peck, Oct. 19, 1850-July 18, 1935 : mountain climber, scholar, suffragist ... Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
![]() | ![]() |
| "Climber" by PKremer Commentary: "Fresh coconuts." | "Ledge" by Hank Furnbach Commentary: "A ledge in NH (note; there is a climber in the center of the picture)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| "Climber" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.34% of the time. "Climber" is used about 302 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.34% | 300 | 16,755 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.66% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 302 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "climber": alpine climber ♦ climber plant ♦ climber up ♦ league climber ♦ mountain climber ♦ porch climber ♦ rock climber ♦ root climber ♦ social climber. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "climber": climber-covered, climber-placed, climber-pruning, climber-turned-platform-builder, climber-upward. | |
Ending with "climber": co-climber, non-climber, rock-climber, roof-climber, social-climber. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "climber"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | bergklimmer (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer), bergbeklimmer (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer), alpinis (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Albanian | njeri ambicioz, këmbalec (coach box, rack, stilt, trestle), bimë kacavjerrëse (clambering plant, creeper, twiner, vine), alpinist (alpinist, iceman, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Arabic | محاولة إحراز تقدم بدون مقومات, متسلق الجبال (alpinist, mountaineer), نبتة متعرشة (liana), طائر (bird, flown, volatile). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | кариерист (careerist, go getter, place hunter, placeman, pusher, self-seeker, social climber), катерач (cliff hanger), алпинист (alpinist, cragsman, mountaineer), пълзящо растение (creeper, rambler, runner, vine). (various references) | |
Chinese | 登山人. (various references) | |
Czech | lezec. (various references) | |
Danish | tovbanetransportarbejder (high climber, high rigger, rigger, rig-up man), slyngplante (twining plant, volubilate plant), lian (liana, liane, vine), klatreplante (climbing plant, liane, vine, vine-like plant), Alpinist (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Dutch | slingerplant (twining plant, volubilate plant), klimplant (climbing plant, liane, twining plant, vine, vine-like plant, volubilate plant), klimarbeider bij kabeluitsleep door de lucht (high climber, high rigger, rigger, rig-up man), bergbeklimmer (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer), alpinist (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Esperanto | montgrimpanto (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer), alpisto (Alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Farsi | گیاه نیلوفری یابالارو, بالارونده (Ascendant, Upriser). (various references) | |
Finnish | köynnöskasvi (climbing plant, creeper). (various references) | |
French | crampon (clamp, climbing), varappeur, plante volubile, plante grimpante (climber plant), ouvrier grimpeur (high climber), monteur de lignes, liane, grimpeur (climbing), griffe (claw), alpiniste (mountain climber). (various references) | |
German | bergsteiger (mountaineer), kletterpflanze (climbing plant, creeper, liana, twiner), Bergsteigerin (mountaineer). (various references) | |
Greek | αναρριχητικό φυτό (creeper, vine). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מטפס (mountaineer), טפסן (creeper). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kúszónövény (clambering plant, creeper, liana, liane, rambling plant, runner, trailer). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pendaki, pemanjat. (various references) | |
Italian | rampicante (clambering, climbing, creeping, rambling, reptant, scrambling, voluble), pianta rampicante (creeper), alpinista (alpinist, mountain climber, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | クーロン力 (car horn, Chrysler, Clark, classic, classic car, classic life, classic races, classical, classicism, clerk, client, client server, climax, climbing, climograph, cloud, collider, cook, cookie, cooking, cooking card, cooking school, Coulomb's force, coutouriere, couturier, crime story, crisis, criteria, crouching start, crown, cryoelectronics, cryogenics, cumin, cushion, cushion ball, Klaxon, Kuwait, large size, multi-purpose health facility, pitcher throwing to first base, quake, Quaker, quality, quality paper, quantity, quantize, quark, quarter, quarterback, quarterly, quartet, quartz, quasar, queen, queen size, Queen's English, Queensland, question, question mark, quick, quick motion, quick step, quick turn, quilter, quintet, quinto, quiz, quiz mania, quiz rally, quota, quotation mark, quote, Society of Friends, the Queen Mary). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | クライマー . (various references) | |
Korean | 등반자. (various references) | |
Manx | raiseyder (creeper, groper, sloth), drappeyder (cragsman). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | imberclay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | trepadeira (bindweed, climbing, creeper, ivy, tree-creeper), alpinista (Alpinist, clamberer, cragsman, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Romanian | carierist (careerist, go getter, self-seeker), plantã agãţãtoare (groundling, runner, vine), arivist (careerist, go getter, thruster), alpinist (alpinist, cragsman, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Russian | альпинист (alpinist, climbing irons, cragsman, iceman, mountain climber, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | puzavica (liana, rambler, trailer, twiner), planinar (mountaineer), penjač. (various references) | |
Spanish | trepador (nuthatch, rambling, social climber), alpinista (alpinist, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Swedish | klängväxt (climbing plant, vine-like plant). (various references) | |
Turkish | toplumda hep gözü yükseklerde olan kimse, tırmanıcı (scansorial), tırmaşık kuş, sarmaşık (creeper, Ivy, twiner, voluble), dağcı (alpinist, cragsman, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | честолюбець, витка рослина (clamberer), альпініст (alpinist, cragsman, iceman, mountaineer). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người leo trèo. (various references) | |
Welsh | dringwr, dringhedydd. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "climber": climbers. (additional references) | |
| |
"Climber" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Alimbaev, Calenberg, Callimba, clambor, clamder, Clemmer, climbe, climbes, clombe, Culemborg, klauber, Salimberi. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "climber" (pronounced klī"mer) |
| 3 | -ī" m er | dimer, primer, Rhymer, Rimer, timer. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-c-e-i-l-m-r" | |
-1 letter: limber. | |
-2 letters: birle, climb, clime, crime, liber, melic, miler, relic. | |
-3 letters: berm, bice, bier, bile, birl, brie, brim, ceil, cire, crib, emic, emir, lice, lier, limb, lime, lire, merl, mice, mile, mire, rice, riel, rile, rime. | |
-4 letters: bel, cel, elm, ice, ire, lei, lib, lie, mel, mib, mil, mir, reb, rec, rei, rem, rib. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-c-e-i-l-m-r" | |
+1 letter: climbers. | |
+2 letters: bicameral, crumblier. | |
+3 letters: amerciable, bolometric, clambering, crumbliest. | |
+4 letters: beclamoring, bimolecular, biometrical, blackmailer, chamberlain, confirmable, crumbliness, embracingly, meroblastic, microtubule, problematic, reclaimable. | |
+5 letters: bicameralism, biomolecular, blackmailers, chamberlains, compressible, descrambling, hibernaculum, incomparable, microbalance, microtubules, microwavable, problematics. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.