atlas

plural atlases · plural atlantes

1. A bound collection of maps often including tables, illustrations or other text.
2. A bound collection of tables, illustrations, etc. on any given subject.
3. especiallyA detailed visual conspectus of something of great and multi-faceted complexity, with its elements splayed so as to be presented in as discrete a manner as possible whilst retaining a realistic view of the whole.

   An Anatomical Atlas of Vegetable Powders Designed as an Aid to the Microscopic Analysis of Powdered Foods and Drugs

   1904: Eugène Collin, An Anatomical Atlas of Vegetable Powders Designed as an Aid to the Microscopic Analysis of Powdered Foods and Drugs, main title (J. & A. Churchill)

   3 more examples

   In addition to classical radiology systems like angiography, CT scanner or MRI have greatly contributed to the improvement of the patient anatomy investigation. Each examination modality still carries its own information and the need to make a synthesis between them is obvious but still makes different problems hard to solve. There is no unique imaging facility which can bring out the whole set of known anatomical structures, brought together in a neuro-anatomical atlas.

   1991, Alan C. F. Colchester, David J. Hawkes, editors, Information Processing in Medical Imaging, Springer, →ISBN, page 154

   Our perception of the body as the natural “space of the origin and distribution of disease”, a space determined by the 'anatomical atlas', is merely one of the various ways in which medicine has formed its “knowledge”.

   1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 55 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN)

   Finally, Subsol et al. [6] reported on a method for automatically constructing 3D morphometric anatomical atlantes which is based on the extraction of line and point features and their subsequent non-rigid registration.

   2003, Isabelle E. Magnin, Functional Imaging and Modeling of the Heart, Springer, →ISBN, page 19

4. differential geometrymathematicsA family of coordinate charts that cover a manifold.
5. anatomyThe uppermost vertebra of the cervical spine in the neck in humans and some other animals.

   There are of these glands upon the first vertebra of the neck of the atlas; on which the head turns[…]

   1734, William Stukeley, Of the Gout, part II, page 58

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   Ribs and spines show through the thin layer of meat left on the carcase, and, where the head meets the body, the crucial first vertebra – the atlas – is exposed.

   2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 174

   Synonyms: atlanto-, atlo-

6. One who supports a heavy burden; mainstay.
7. architectureA figure of a man used as a column.

   Synonyms: atlantid, telamon

8. paperA sheet of paper measuring 26 inches by 34 inches.
9. computer graphicsAn image or texture containing a number of other images or textures, so as to reduce the cost of loading them separately.

   a texture atlas

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   a glyph atlas used in font rendering

plural atlases · plural atlasses

1. countablehistoricaluncountableA rich satin fabric.

   Surat was an important port on the west coast of India from where atlases were exported on a large scale […]

   2016, Pius Malekandathil, The Indian Ocean in the Making of Early Modern India, page 53

   1 more example

   I saw ye Taffaties and Atlasses in ye warehouse, and gave directions concerning their severall colours and stripes, ordering Mr. Charnock to use his best endeavours to encrease their quantity; […]

   1887, Sir William Hedges, Sir Henry Yule, The Diary of William Hedges, Esq.

plural Atlases

1. Greekcountableuncountablehuman sciencesThe son of Iapetus and Clymene, war leader of the Titans ordered by the god Zeus to support the sky on his shoulders; father to the Hesperides, the Hyades, and the Pleiades; king of the legendary Atlantis.
2. A placename:
   1. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Pike County, Illinois.
   2. countableuncountableA township in Genesee County, Michigan.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Lamar County, Texas.
   4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Upshur County, West Virginia.
   5. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Laketown, Polk County, Wisconsin.
   6. countableuncountableastronomyA moon of Saturn.
   7. countableuncountableastronomyA crater in the last quadrant of the moon.
   8. countableuncountableastronomyA triple star system in the Pleiades open cluster (M45) also known as 27 Tauri.
3. countableA surname.
4. UScountableuncountableaerospaceAn SM-65, an early ICBM, soon developed into a long-lived orbital launch vehicle series.

plural Atlases

1. USaerospaceA particular model or individual specimen of the Atlas missile and launch vehicle line.

plural Atlases

1. A subgroup of the Berber languages.
2. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Atlas Mountains.

1. alternativeastronomyAlternative form of ATLAS.

1. abbreviationinitialismUS space program; space; US space program; spaceInitialism of Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (a robotic astronomical survey and early warning system optimized for detecting smaller near-Earth objects)
2. astronomyA comet, an interstellar object visiting the Solar System, on a hyperbolic orbit. Named after the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.

   Synonyms: Atlas, 3I/ATLAS, 3I/Atlas