Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The gaseous mass or envelope surrounding a celestial body, especially the one surrounding the earth, and retained by the celestial body's gravitational field.
  • noun The air or climate in a specific place.
  • noun Physics A unit of pressure equal to the air pressure at sea level. It equals the amount of pressure that will support a column of mercury 760 millimeters high at 0 degrees Celsius under standard gravity, or 14.7 pounds per square inch (1.01325 × 105 pascals).
  • noun A dominant intellectual or emotional environment or attitude.
  • noun The dominant tone or mood of a work of art.
  • noun An aesthetic quality or effect, especially a distinctive and pleasing one, associated with a particular place.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The aëriform fluid which surrounds the earth, and extends to an undetermined height above its surface; the air.
  • noun A conventional unit of atmospheric pressure.
  • noun The gaseous envelop surrounding any of the heavenly bodies.
  • noun Any gaseous medium: as, “an atmosphere of cold oxygen,” Miller.
  • noun An assumed outer envelop of force, effluvia, etc., surrounding a body: as, an electrical atmosphere.
  • noun Figuratively, intellectual or moral environment; pervading influence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The whole mass of aëriform fluid surrounding the earth; -- applied also to the gaseous envelope of any celestial orb, or other body.
  • noun Any gaseous envelope or medium.
  • noun A supposed medium around various bodies.
  • noun The pressure or weight of the air at the sea level, on a unit of surface, or about 14.7 lbs. to the sq. inch.
  • noun Any surrounding or pervading influence or condition.
  • noun The portion of air in any locality, or affected by a special physical or sanitary condition

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
  • noun The air in a particular place.
  • noun The mood or feeling in a situation.
  • noun A unit of measurement for pressure (symbol: atm)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the mass of air surrounding the Earth
  • noun a distinctive but intangible quality surrounding a person or thing
  • noun a particular environment or surrounding influence
  • noun the envelope of gases surrounding any celestial body
  • noun the weather or climate at some place
  • noun a unit of pressure: the pressure that will support a column of mercury 760 mm high at sea level and 0 degrees centigrade

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin atmosphaera : Greek atmos, vapor; see wet- in Indo-European roots + Latin sphaera, sphere; see sphere.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin atmosphaera, from Ancient Greek ἀτμός (atmós, "steam") + Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaĩra, "sphere").

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Examples

Comments

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  • This when the sound recordist is recording the sound of silence for the dub.

    May 13, 2008

  • Wouldn't the color of the atmosphere depend on one's geographical location, as well as local ambient conditions, such as the smog level?

    January 26, 2009

  • Tag: pink has been used 5 times by mollusque, 5 times total.

    January 26, 2009

  • Mollusque is indeed a tagmeister par excellence!

    Myself, I'm a tag-tyro.

    January 26, 2009

  • How come no pictures of atmosphere are available?

    September 12, 2011

  • Scroll down.

    September 12, 2011