atmosphere

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.

   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.

   1988 April 14, Richard Fifield, “Frozen assets of the ice cores”, in New Scientist, number 1608, page 28

   2 more examples

   We may smile now to hear witchcraft spoken seriously of; but we forget perhaps that a belief in it is like a belief in the after appearance of the dead among the blue waters, the green graves, the still starry atmosphere and the great shadowy woods of our earth; […]

   1828, John Neal, chapter I, in Rachel Dyer: A North American Story, Portland, Me.: Shirley and Hyde, →OCLC, page 22

   Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere — an invisible bubble of magnetism generated by the powerful churning of molten metals at Earth’s core. It prevents our atmosphere from being stripped away by solar winds blasting it from the sun. While the magnetosphere has been a constant presence for billions of years, its strength waxes and wanes over time.

   2023 December 27, Mindy Weisberger, “Ancient bricks baked when Nebuchadnezzar II was king absorbed a power surge in Earth’s magnetic field”, in CNN, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024

2. countableuncountableThe air in a particular place.

   The last hue of crimson had died away in the west, and the depth of the rich purple atmosphere was unbroken.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 2

   2 more examples

   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;[…].

   1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, 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

   This year of 1905 also saw the completion of the electrification of the Underground, which certainly improved the atmosphere, and made travelling easier and more comfortable, although, at first, not too reliable.

   1957 July 28, M. D. Greville, “A Diamond Jubilee of Railway Memories”, in Railway Magazine, page 459

3. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe conditions (such as music, illumination, etc.) that can influence the mood felt in an environment.

   Synonyms: air, ambiance

In a sentence

We may smile now to hear witchcraft spoken seriously of; but we forget perhaps that a belief in it is like a belief in the after appearance of the dead among the blue waters, the green graves, the still starry atmosphere and the great shadowy woods of our earth; […]

1828, John Neal, chapter I, in Rachel Dyer: A North American Story, Portland, Me.: Shirley and Hyde, →OCLC, page 22

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekἀτμός (atmós)
2. Frenchatmo-
3. Ancient Greekσφαῖρᾰ (sphaîră)
4. Latinsphaera
5. Late Latinsphēra
6. Frenchatmosphère
7. Englishatmosphere

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