atmosphere
See also: atmosphère
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- atmosphære (archaic)
EtymologyEdit
From French atmosphère, from New Latin atmosphaera, from Ancient Greek ἀτμός (atmós, “steam”) + σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “sphere”); corresponding to atmo- + -sphere.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
atmosphere (countable and uncountable, plural atmospheres)
- The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
- Coordinate terms: hydrosphere, biosphere
- Meronyms: see Thesaurus:atmosphere
- The air in a particular place.
- 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 1, page 2:
- The last hue of crimson had died away in the west, and the depth of the rich purple atmosphere was unbroken.
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0016:
- Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].
- (figuratively) The apparent mood felt in an environment.
- A unit of measurement for pressure equal to 101325 Pa (symbol: atm)
- (television, film, uncountable) Extras in a scene who have no spoken lines.
Related termsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
gases surrounding the Earth
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air in a particular place
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mood or feeling
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a unit of measurement for pressure
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