atmosphere
/ˈætməsˌfɪə/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.46 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The conditions (such as music, illumination, etc.) that can influence the mood felt in an environment.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A unit of measurement for pressure equal to 101325 Pa (symbol: atm), approximately the atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Countable; Uncountable
name
The distributed social media network of federated services using the AT Protocol.
Example Sentences
- "We may smile now to hear witchcraft spoken seriously of; but we forget perhaps that a belief in it is like a belief in the after appearance of the dead among the blue waters, the green graves, the still starry atmosphere and the great shadowy woods of our earth; […]"
- "To most people, the huge ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland are merely water that once was snow. To glaciologists and climatologists, they are storehouses of the Earth's former atmospheres."
- "Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere — an invisible bubble of magnetism generated by the powerful churning of molten metals at Earth’s core. It prevents our atmosphere from being stripped away by solar winds blasting it from the sun. While the magnetosphere has been a constant presence for billions of years, its strength waxes and wanes over time."
- "The last hue of crimson had died away in the west, and the depth of the rich purple atmosphere was unbroken."
- "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;[…]."
- "This year of 1905 also saw the completion of the electrification of the Underground, which certainly improved the atmosphere, and made travelling easier and more comfortable, although, at first, not too reliable."
Etymology
Borrowed from French atmosphère, from New Latin atmosphaera, from Ancient Greek ἀτμός (atmós, “steam”) + σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “sphere”); corresponding to atmo- + -sphere.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: atmosphaera, ἀτμός
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈætməsˌfɪə/
- British English: /ˈætməsˌfɪə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
atmospheres (plural)
atmosphaere (alternative, archaic)
atmosphære (alternative, archaic)
the ATmosphere (canonical)