Meaning & use
acclimatize
Last updated
Meanings
verbintransitive
to gradually get used to a new climate, height, or conditions.
Grammar: No object; the new conditions follow 'to': They acclimatized to the heat.
Patterns
- acclimatize to something
- acclimatize to doing something
- gradually acclimatize
It took her about a week to acclimatize to the dry mountain air.
The players need time to acclimatize to the higher altitude before the match.
New staff usually acclimatize quickly to the office routine.
verbtransitive or intransitive
to make your body or mind adjust to new conditions, often on purpose.
Grammar: Can take an object, especially a reflexive one: acclimatize yourself to cold water.
Patterns
- acclimatize yourself to something
- acclimatize someone to something
Doctors recommend that you acclimatize yourself to the heat before training hard.
The program is designed to acclimatize students to life in another country.
Climbers spend days at base camp to acclimatize their bodies to thin air.
Word forms
| third person singular | acclimatizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | acclimatized |
| past participle | acclimatized |
| -ing form | acclimatizing |
Common combinations
- acclimatize to the heat
- Runners who arrive early acclimatize to the heat more easily.
- acclimatize to high altitude
- It can take several days to acclimatize to high altitude.
- slowly acclimatize
- She slowly acclimatized to the pace of the new job.
- fully acclimatize
- The plants never fully acclimatized to the cold greenhouse.
- acclimatize yourself
- Give yourself a few days to acclimatize yourself to the time difference.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adapt
- Broader and more general; you adapt to almost anything, while acclimatize usually refers to climate, height, or physical conditions.
- adjust
- Often suggests a smaller, quicker change in behavior or routine rather than a bodily process over days.
- get used to
- The everyday, informal way to say the same thing; acclimatize sounds more technical or formal.
Word family
- acclimatization noun
- the process of becoming used to new conditions.
- acclimatized adjective
- already used to the new conditions, as in 'well acclimatized'.
- acclimate verb
- the usual American variant, with the same meaning.
Commonly confused: acclimatize or acclaim? acclimatize or climate?
acclimatize vs acclaim
Acclaim means to praise publicly and sounds similar at the start, but it has nothing to do with getting used to a climate.
acclimatize vs climate
The noun climate is the weather of a place; acclimatize is the verb for getting used to it.
Practice
The team arrived ten days early so the players could acclimatize ___ the humid conditions.
Choose one answer.
'Acclimatize' is followed by 'to' when naming the new conditions: acclimatize to the humidity. 'With' is tempting because we say 'get familiar with', but it does not fit this verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “acclimatize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.