Dynamical system
A process or set of processes whose evolution in time is governed by a set of deterministic physical laws. The climate system is a dynamical system. See Abrupt climate change; Chaos; Nonlinearity; Predictability.
Definition courtesy of IPCC AR4.
All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.