SUBTROPICS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subtropics mean? 

• SUBTROPICS (noun)
  The noun SUBTROPICS has 1 sense:

1. regions adjacent to the tropics

  Familiarity information: SUBTROPICS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBTROPICS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regions adjacent to the tropics

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

semitropics; subtropics

Hypernyms ("subtropics" is a kind of...):

climatic zone (any of the geographical zones loosely divided according to prevailing climate and latitude)

Derivation:

subtropic (of or relating to or characteristic of conditions in the subtropics)

 Context examples 

Most of these countries are in the tropics and subtropics.

(Leishmaniasis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Deserts usually form in the subtropics because of what's called Hadley circulation, through which air rises at the equator and descends in the subtropics.

(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)

The team used cutting-edge technologies in the Bigelow Laboratory's Single Cell Genomics Center to analyze samples collected throughout the tropics and subtropics — two thirds of the world's oceans — to learn about global distribution patterns.

(Study analyzing cells' blueprints reveals new patterns in the global distribution and diversity of ocean microbes, National Science Foundation)