Ambient
adjectiveRelating to or existing in the immediate surroundings, especially background conditions such as temperature, light, or sound.
How to spell ambient
7 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce ambient
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does ambient mean?
- adjectiveRelating to or existing in the immediate surroundings, especially background conditions such as temperature, light, or sound.
Ambient in a sentence
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The lab must record the ambient temperature every hour.
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Soft ambient lighting made the restaurant feel calm.
Where does ambient come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word comes from the Latin ambiens, the present participle of the verb ambire, which literally meant 'to go around' or 'to surround'. That verb was formed from ambi-, meaning 'around' or 'on both sides', and ire, meaning 'to go'. English took up 'ambient' in the late 1500s, originally to describe the surrounding air or atmosphere that encircles a person or place. From that physical sense of 'encompassing on all sides' grew the modern meanings of background conditions such as ambient temperature, ambient light and ambient noise. The same ambi- element survives in relatives like 'ambition' (originally the going around to canvass for votes) and 'ambidextrous', and remembering 'around' helps fix the tricky unstressed -ient ending.
How the word is built
- ambi- (around)
- -ent (present-participle suffix, from ire 'to go')
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