ambient

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

ambient

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin ambiēns (“going around”), from ambiō (“go around”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈæm.bi.ənt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

ambient (comparative more ambient, superlative most ambient)

1. Encompassing on all sides; surrounding; encircling; enveloping.

   A cup of warm tea eventually cools to the ambient temperature.

   • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     This which yields or fills all space / The ambient air wide interfused

   • 1715, [Alexander] Pope, The Temple of Fame: A Vision, London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 9:

     Then gazing up, a glorious Pile beheld, / VVhoſe tovv'ring Summit ambient Clouds conceal'd.

2. (music) Evoking or creating an atmosphere: atmospheric.
3. Relating to, or suitable for, storage at room temperature.

   ambient food

   ambient warehousing

4. (mathematics) Containing objects or describing a setting that one is interested in.
   • 1996, Moshe Machover, Set Theory, Logic and Their Limitations, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 282:

     These, then, are characterizations of the system of natural numbers within an ambient set theory. And they seem to work, in the sense that in a sufficiently strong set theory it can be shown that Peano's axioms have (up to isomorphism) a unique model (cf. Rem. 6.1.8).

   • 2008, Akihiro Kanamori, The Higher Infinite: Large Cardinals in Set Theory from Their Beginnings, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 369:

     As much of the work in determinacy must proceed without AC, ZF serves as the ambient theory for this section, and uses of AC will be explicitly noted, reversing the usual procedure.

   • 2011, Henry W. Haslach Jr., Maximum Dissipation Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics and its Geometric Structure, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 163:

     A point in the manifold is classically represented by a vector in the ambient space.

Derived terms

• nonambient
• subambient
• superambient

Translations

encompassing on all sides

Bulgarian: околен (bg) (okolen), заобикалящ (bg) (zaobikaljašt) Catalan: ambient (ca) Czech: obklopující, okolní (cs) Finnish: ympäröivä (fi); ympäristön (fi) (of ambiance) Georgian: გარშემორტყმული (garšemorṭq̇muli) Icelandic: umlykjandi m, allt um kring, umhverfis- (is) Latvian: visaptverošs, ietverošs, apkārt esošs Malay: sekitar (ms), sekeliling (ms) Marathi: नी घेरलेले (nī gherlele) Persian: محیط (fa), محیطی (fa) Polish: otaczający Portuguese: ambiente (pt) Russian: окружа́ющий (ru) (okružájuščij) Swedish: omgivande (sv)

(music) evoking or creating an atmosphere

Finnish: tunnelmallinen (fi) Georgian: ემბიენტი (embienṭi), ემბიენტური მუსიკა (embienṭuri musiḳa) Greek: άμπιεντ (el) f (ámpient) Italian: ambientale (it) Latvian: ambientā mūzika Marathi: वातावरण (vātāvraṇ) Persian: امبینت Polish: atmosferyczny (pl) Portuguese: ambiente (pt)

Noun

ambient (countable and uncountable, plural ambients)

1. Something that surrounds; encompassing material, substance or shape.
   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia:

     Much after this same manner, when the Air is exceeding cold through which it passes; do we find the drops of Rain, falling from the Clouds, congealed into round Hail-stones by the freezing Ambient.

2. (astrology) The atmosphere; the surrounding air or sky; atmospheric components collectively such as air, clouds, water vapour, hail, etc.
   • 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):

     It might be also, that attracted by that great void Vacuum ... all the ambients would be rarified, and particularly, the air.

3. (uncountable, music) A type of modern music that creates a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere.
   • 1996, SPIN, volume 12, number 3, page 116:

     Ambient can be flabby synth mulch that needs to access cyberism and external philosophies to convince you you're not being scammed.

Synonyms

• (music): ambient music, chillout

Derived terms

• ambient device
• ambient findability
• ambient food
• ambient house
• ambient-like
• ambiently
• ambientness
• ambient pressure
• dark ambient
• illbient
• psybient

Descendants

• → Polish: ambient

Translations

Something that surrounds

Catalan: ambient (ca) m Czech: prostředí (cs) n Finnish: ympäristö (fi), ympäröivä (fi) Polish: otoczenie (pl) n Portuguese: ambiente (pt) m Russian: окружа́ющая среда́ (ru) f (okružájuščaja sredá) Swedish: omgivande (sv)

Type of modern music

Chinese: Mandarin: 氛圍 / 氛围 (zh) (fēnwéi) Esperanto: etosmuziko Finnish: ambient-musiikki Italian: ambient (it) m Japanese: 環境 (ja) (かんきょう, kankyō), アンビエント (anbiento) Latvian: ambientā mūzika Polish: ambient (pl) m Portuguese: ambient m Russian: эмбие́нт (ru) m (embijént)

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “ambient”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ambient”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “ambient”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ambientem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [əm.biˈen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [əm.biˈent]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [am.biˈent]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

ambient m or f (masculine and feminine plural ambients)

1. ambient

Derived terms

• ambiental
• ambientar
• medi ambient

Noun

ambient m (plural ambients)

1. ambience, atmosphere
2. environment

Further reading

• “ambient”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “ambient”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “ambient” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “ambient” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

German

Pronunciation

• Audio (Germany):

  (file)

Adjective

ambient (strong nominative masculine singular ambienter, not comparable)

1. (very rare, widely unintelligible) ambient

Declension

Positive forms of ambient (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist ambient	sie ist ambient	es ist ambient	sie sind ambient
strong declension (without article)	nominative	ambienter	ambiente	ambientes	ambiente
	genitive	ambienten	ambienter	ambienten	ambienter
	dative	ambientem	ambienter	ambientem	ambienten
	accusative	ambienten	ambiente	ambientes	ambiente
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der ambiente	die ambiente	das ambiente	die ambienten
	genitive	des ambienten	der ambienten	des ambienten	der ambienten
	dative	dem ambienten	der ambienten	dem ambienten	den ambienten
	accusative	den ambienten	die ambiente	das ambiente	die ambienten
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein ambienter	eine ambiente	ein ambientes	(keine) ambienten
	genitive	eines ambienten	einer ambienten	eines ambienten	(keiner) ambienten
	dative	einem ambienten	einer ambienten	einem ambienten	(keinen) ambienten
	accusative	einen ambienten	eine ambiente	ein ambientes	(keine) ambienten

Ladin

Noun

ambient m (plural ambienc)

1. environment

Latin

Verb

ambient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of ambiō