atmosphere
noun
Simple meaning
The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
atmuhsfirSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈætməsfɪɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
figuratively
The conditions (such as music, illumination etc.) that can influence the mood felt in an environment.
The air in a particular place.
figuratively
The apparent mood felt in an environment.
A unit of measurement for pressure equal to 101325 Pa (symbol: atm), approximately the atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
Used this way, atmosphere is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use atmosphere
- “There was great heat as the comet entered the atmosphere.”noun
- “There was an atmosphere of excitement.”noun
- “The atmosphere was thick with fog.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A unit of pressure: the pressure that will support a column of mercury 760 mm high at sea level and 0 degrees centigrade.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Electrical discharges in the atmosphere.
A physical phenomenon associated with the atmosphere.
The pressure exerted by the atmosphere.
The atmospheric conditions that comprise the state of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and wind and clouds and precipitation.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- dioxidenoun
- temperaturenoun
- venusnoun
- oxygennoun
- dustnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.