atlas
nounnounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈætləs//
- United Kingdom//ˈætlɪs//
- United States//ˈætləs//
- //ˈæʈ.ləs//
A bound collection of maps often including tables, illustrations or other text.
noun
- 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
A 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
1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 55 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN 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”.
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.
- 4
A family of coordinate charts that cover a manifold.
- 5
The 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[…]
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.
- 6
One who supports a heavy burden; mainstay.
- 7
A figure of a man used as a column.
- 8
A sheet of paper measuring 26 inches by 34 inches.
- 9
An image or texture containing a number of other images or textures, so as to reduce the cost of loading them separately.
a glyph atlas used in font rendering
a texture atlas
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Atlas, from the name of the Ancient Greek mythological figure Ἄτλας (Átlas, “Bearer (of the Heavens)”), from τλῆναι (tlênai, “to suffer”, “to endure”, “to bear”). The sense referring to books of maps comes from the Atlas of Mercator, which he named thus in honor of Atlas, who was supposed to be skillful in astronomy and the doctrine of the sphere. The sense referring to the vertebra reflects that the spine carries the globe of the cranium (the neck carries the head).
noun
- 1
historicalA rich satin fabric.
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; […]
Surat was an important port on the west coast of India from where atlases were exported on a large scale […]
Etymology
From Arabic أَطْلَس (ʔaṭlas, “satin”).
Forms
- plural
- atlases, atlantes, atlasses
atlas · A bound collection of maps often including tables, illustrations or other text.
Atlas · The son of Iapetus and Clymene, war leader of the Titans…ATLAS · A comet, an interstellar object visiting the Solar System, on…ATM · Any source of a large amount of money.