atlas
/ˈætləs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.80 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A bound collection of maps often including tables, illustrations or other text.
noun
A bound collection of tables, illustrations, etc. on any given subject.
noun
A detailed visual conspectus of something of great and multi-faceted complexity, with its elements splayed so as to be presented in as discrete a manner as possible whilst retaining a realistic view of the whole.
noun
A family of coordinate charts that cover a manifold.
noun
A sheet of paper measuring 26 inches by 34 inches.
Example Sentences
- "An Anatomical Atlas of Vegetable Powders Designed as an Aid to the Microscopic Analysis of Powdered Foods and Drugs"
- "In addition to classical radiology systems like angiography, CT scanner or MRI have greatly contributed to the improvement of the patient anatomy investigation. Each examination modality still carries its own information and the need to make a synthesis between them is obvious but still makes different problems hard to solve. There is no unique imaging facility which can bring out the whole set of known anatomical structures, brought together in a neuro-anatomical atlas."
- "Our perception of the body as the natural “space of the origin and distribution of disease”, a space determined by the anatomical atlas', is merely one of the various ways in which medicine has formed its “knowledge”."
- "Finally, Subsol et al. [6] reported on a method for automatically constructing 3D morphometric anatomical atlantes which is based on the extraction of line and point features and their subsequent non-rigid registration."
- "There are of these glands upon the first vertebra of the neck of the atlas; on which the head turns[…]"
- "Ribs and spines show through the thin layer of meat left on the carcase, and, where the head meets the body, the crucial first vertebra – the atlas – is exposed."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Atlas, from the name of the Ancient Greek mythological figure Ἄτλας (Átlas, “Bearer (of the Heavens)”), from τλῆναι (tlênai, “to suffer”, “to endure”, “to bear”). The sense referring to books of maps comes from the Atlas of Mercator, which he named thus in honor of Atlas, who was supposed to be skillful in astronomy and the doctrine of the sphere. The sense referring to the vertebra reflects that the spine carries the globe of the cranium (the neck carries the head).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈætləs/
- British English: /ˈætləs/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage