humidity
- 01 B1 Intermediate
the amount of water vapour in the air. High humidity often makes the weather feel hotter than it really is.
the concentration of water vapour in the atmosphere. The term is typically uncountable and refers to the relative or absolute moisture content of the air.
Simple“The high humidity made it difficult to breathe during our hike in the jungle.”
In context“Meteorologists predicted that the rising humidity would likely trigger a series of intense thunderstorms across the valley by late afternoon.”
UsageUsually functions as an uncountable noun; often modified by adjectives like 'high', 'low', or 'relative'.
PitfallThe weather is very humidity today. The weather is very humid today.Use the adjective 'humid' to describe the weather, and the noun 'humidity' to talk about the amount of moisture.
From Middle English humidite, borrowed from Old French humidité, from Medieval Latin hūmiditās, from Latin ūmidus (“damp, moist, wet”). By surface analysis, humid + -ity.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.