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Wiktionary

atmosphere

See also: atmosphère

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French atmosphère, from New Latin atmosphaera, from Ancient Greek ἀτμός (atmós, “steam”) + σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “sphere”); corresponding to atmo- +‎ -sphere.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈæt.məsˌfɪə(ɹ)/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈætməsˌfɪɹ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (India, spelling pronunciation) IPA(key): /ətˈmɒsˌfɪə(ɾ)/
  • Hyphenation: at‧mos‧phere

Noun

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atmosphere (countable and uncountable, plural atmospheres)

  2. The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
    Meronyms: see Thesaurus:atmosphere
    Coordinate terms: hydrosphere, biosphere
    • 1988 April 14, Richard Fifield, “Frozen assets of the ice cores”, in New Scientist, number 1608, page 28:
      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.
  4. The air in a particular place.
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, 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; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, 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; […].
  6. (figuratively) The conditions (such as music, illumination etc.) that can influence the mood felt in an environment.
    Synonyms: air, ambiance
  8. (figuratively) The apparent mood felt in an environment.
    Synonyms: feeling, mood
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XX, page 33:
      For by the hearth the children sit
      ⁠Cold in that atmosphere of Death,
      ⁠And scarce endure to draw the breath,
      Or like to noiseless phantoms flit: […]
    • 1984, Ben Findon, Eddie Tucker, Steve Rodway (lyrics and music), “Atmosphere”, in I Love a Party, performed by Russ Abbot:
      Oh, what an atmosphere / I love a party with a happy atmosphere
  10. A unit of measurement for pressure equal to 101325 Pa (symbol: atm), approximately the atmospheric pressure at sea level.
    • 1959, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights‎[1], volume 87, page 6658:
      A process for preparing normally solid high molecular weight, hydrocarbon polymers which comprises heating and reacting carbon monoxide with hydrogen at a temperature of 125 ° to 350 °C, under a pressure of at least 30 atmospheres and in contact with a phosphomolybdic compound represented by the formula P2Mo20–24O2–60.
  12. (television, film, uncountable) Extras in a scene who have no spoken lines.
    • 2006, Los Angeles Magazine, volume 51, number 2, page 100:
      Central Casting is in the business of extras, also known as atmosphere or background actors […]
    • 2013, Kerry Segrave, Extras of Early Hollywood: A History of the Crowd, 1913-1945, page 38:
      "It is estimated conservatively that there are some 50,000 would-be film extras in and around the celluloid capital, persons who would jump at the opportunity to appear as atmosphere in pictures," Scott concluded.
    • 2015, William R. Phillippe, The Pastor's Diary:
      By the way, I discovered that we were not extras but background, as far as the director was concerned; and for the producer, we were atmosphere.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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