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atmospheric

UK/ˌætməsˈfɛɹɪk/
adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,568 of 15,258leans written

Atmospheric means to do with the air around a world, or full of mood. Atmospheric pressure, an atmospheric film, atmospheric conditions.

The technical sense is measurable: atmospheric pressure at sea level is about a hundred kilopascals, and every weather forecast rests on it. The other sense is a compliment about mood, and an atmospheric restaurant is one that is dimly lit.

NASA Earth Observatory · Public domain

Definitions of atmospheric

  1. 1adjectiveatmosphericTo do with the air around a world, or full of mood.C1

    “The old candle-lit cellar made an atmospheric setting for the ghost story.”

atmospheric is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Ancient Greek

    ἀτμός — steam

  2. New Latin

    atmosphaera

  3. French

    atmosphère

  4. English

    atmosphere

  5. English, today

    atmospheric

Built from

  • σφαῖρα · Ancient Greek — sphere

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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atmospheric in the wild

  • A liquid in a partial vacuum, i.e., under a lower pressure, has a lower boiling point than when that liquid is at atmospheric pressure.

    Boiling point

  • At that temperature, the vapor pressure of the liquid becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure and allow bubbles of vapor to form inside the bulk of the liquid.

    Boiling point

  • Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes, as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant.

    Weather

  • Various advanced technologies have been developed to enable atmospheric reentry and flight at extreme velocities.

    Atmospheric entry

  • The atm unit is roughly equivalent to the mean sea-level atmospheric pressure on Earth; that is, the Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level is approximately one atm.

    Atmospheric pressure

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the atmosphère family

atmosphere

atmospheric — used about once every 3,655 pages · #8,568 · point at the bar for the others