atmosphere

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the mass of air surrounding the Earth

   there was great heat as the comet entered the atmosphere

2. 2
   noun

   the weather or climate at some place

   the atmosphere was thick with fog

3. 3
   noun

   a particular environment or surrounding influence

   there was an atmosphere of excitement

4. 4
   noun

   The 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.

5. 5
   noun

   The 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.

6. 6
   noun

   The apparent mood felt in an environment.

   The atmosphere for the football match was great.

7. 7
   noun

   A unit of measurement for pressure equal to 101325 Pa (symbol: atm), approximately the atmospheric pressure at sea level.

   A process for preparing normally solid high molecular weight, hydrocarbon polymers which comprises heating and reacting carbon monoxide with hydrogen at a temperature of 125 ° to 350 °C, under a pressure of at least 30 atmospheres and in contact with a phosphomolybdic compound represented by the formula P₂Mo_(20–24)O_(2–60).

8. 8
   noun

   Extras in a scene who have no spoken lines.

   Central Casting is in the business of extras, also known as atmosphere or background actors […]

Etymology

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