cartography

UK/kɑːˈtɒɡɹəfi/US/kɑɹˈtɑɡɹəfi/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,807 of 15,258leans written

Cartography is the making of maps. Study cartography, digital cartography, the art of cartography.

Every map lies, because a curved surface cannot be flattened without distortion, and the whole craft is choosing which lie to tell. Cartography using the Mercator projection keeps the angles right for navigation and makes Greenland look the size of Africa.

Definitions of cartography

1nouncartographyThe making of maps.C1
“Before satellite photos, cartography depended on surveyors walking the land with measuring chains.”

cartography is a craft.

Where it comes from

French cartographie, from carte, a map, from Greek chartes, a sheet of papyrus, plus graphein, to write.

Ancient Greek
χάρτης — map
French
cartographie
English, today
cartography

Built from

carte · French — map
-graphie · French — -graphy
γράφω · Ancient Greek — write

From French cartographie, from carte (“map”) (ultimately from Ancient Greek χάρτης (“map”)) + -graphie (“-graphy”) (from γράφω (“write”)); carto + graphy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in School Subjects

Practise this word

cartography in the wild

Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
Cartography
In cartography, a map is a representation or abstraction of geographic reality.
Map
In cartography, an organized collection of symbols forms a legend for a map.
Symbol
In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional surface of a globe on a plane.
Map projection
Projection is a necessary step in creating a two-dimensional map and is one of the essential elements of cartography.
Map projection

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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.

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