What term describes water falling to Earth as rain, sleet, hail, or snow?

• A. Condensation
• B. Evaporation
• C. Precipitation
• D. Transpiration

Answer: (C)

In the water cycle, precipitation is the process by which water falls to Earth as rain, sleet, hail, or snow. This term specifically describes how water moves from the atmosphere back to the surface, under different conditions of temperature and humidity that determine whether it rains, sleets, hails, or snow.

The other terms describe different steps: evaporation is water turning into vapor and rising into the atmosphere; condensation is vapor cooling and forming clouds; transpiration is water released as vapor from plants. Each of those describes a separate part of moving water through the cycle, not the act of water falling to the ground. So the word that matches water coming down from the sky in these forms is precipitation.