Atmospheric

How to spell atmospheric

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce atmospheric

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does atmospheric mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the atmosphere or the air surrounding the Earth.
2. adjectiveCreating a distinctive and often pleasing mood or feeling.

Atmospheric in a sentence

• The pilot reported a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure.

• The candlelit restaurant felt warm and deeply atmospheric.

• Scientists measured the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the decade.

• The film score was haunting and atmospheric throughout.

Where does atmospheric come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word grows out of two Greek roots: atmos, meaning 'vapour' or 'steam', and sphaira, meaning 'ball' or 'globe'. The two were joined in the seventeenth century to coin the noun 'atmosphere', the envelope of vapour imagined as a sphere of air surrounding the Earth. The adjective 'atmospheric' followed soon after, originally describing pressure, conditions, and effects of the air itself, as in 'atmospheric pressure'. By the nineteenth century writers had extended it to mean richly evocative of a mood or place, the way a misty scene or dim lighting creates a feeling. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the unstressed second syllable swallows to a faint 'mos', and learners often forget the 'ph' that betrays the Greek origin, since 'ph' here spells the same sound as 'f'.

How the word is built

• atmo- (from Greek atmos: vapour, steam)
• sphere (from Greek sphaira: ball, globe)
• -ic (adjective suffix)