atlas

atlas — noun

1. a printed book whose pages are mostly maps, used to look up where countries, cit

1.nounB2
Definition

a printed book whose pages are mostly maps, used to look up where countries, cities, oceans, or roads are located.

Example

Mei pulled a worn world atlas off the shelf to find Mongolia.

collocation: world atlas

Every Year 7 student at the school received a road atlas of Taiwan.

collocation: road atlas of [place]

Common collocations
  • world atlas
  • road atlas
  • open the atlas
  • page through an atlas
Synonyms
  • map book

    everyday phrase; less formal than atlas

  • gazetteer

    a place-name index, often paired with an atlas but text-based, not maps

Usage Note

Frequently modified by a place name or scope (world, road, school, family). Distinguish from sense 2: a plain atlas just shows geography; a thematic atlas shows where things happen or are produced.

Common Mistakes

I bought a map atlas of Europe.
I bought an atlas of Europe.
'atlas' already means a book of maps, so 'map atlas' is repetitive.
She opened the atlas in page 30.
She opened the atlas to page 30.
use 'to' with a page, not 'in'.

2. a book of maps focused on one specific topic — for example, where certain animal

2.nounB2
Definition

a book of maps focused on one specific topic — for example, where certain animals live, where a language is spoken, or where wine is grown.

Example

Dr. Lin published a bird atlas covering every species seen in Taiwan.

collocation: bird / wildlife atlas

The wine atlas shows which valleys in France grow each grape variety.

collocation: wine atlas of [region]

Common collocations
  • historical atlas
  • linguistic atlas
  • wine atlas
  • climate atlas
Synonyms

Usage Note

Almost always preceded by the topic noun (bird atlas, wine atlas, soil atlas, climate atlas). Distinguish from sense 1: sense 1 shows places; sense 2 shows the geography of one specific subject.

Common Mistakes

an atlas about birds
a bird atlas' or 'an atlas of birds
the topic is normally placed before 'atlas' or joined with 'of'.

3. the highest bone in the spine, sitting just under the skull and allowing the hea

3.nounC1
Definition

the highest bone in the spine, sitting just under the skull and allowing the head to nod up and down.

Example

The X-ray showed a small crack in Mr. Chen's atlas after the car crash.

anatomical context: injury to the atlas

Dr. Park explained that the atlas lets you tilt your head forward and back.

function: nodding motion

Common collocations
  • fracture of the atlas
  • dislocate the atlas
  • the atlas and axis
Synonyms

Usage Note

Specialist anatomy term; outside medical or biology contexts most speakers say 'top vertebra' or 'first neck bone'. Distinguish from senses 1 and 2 (which are books) — context almost always makes it clear.

Common Mistakes

The atlas is in the lower back.
The atlas is at the top of the spine, under the skull.
by definition the atlas sits directly below the head.

Word family

  • atlases
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four help you locate places, but they differ in form and depth. A map is a single sheet showing one area — a city, a country, a hiking trail. An atlas is a whole bound book of maps, so it covers many regions in one volume and usually adds an index, scale notes, and small fact tables. A gazetteer is a text reference: an alphabetical list of place names with brief geographic data, often used alongside an atlas rather than instead of it. A globe is a three-dimensional model of the Earth, useful for showing true shapes and distances on a sphere but awkward for close-up detail. So if you want one country quickly, grab a map; if you need many regions and reference data, reach for an atlas; if you only know the name of a place, look it up in a gazetteer; if you want to see how the continents really sit, spin a globe.

atlas ↗map ↗gazetteerglobe ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • atlas page
  • atlas index
  • atlas cover

Phrases

  • consult an atlas
  • look something up in an atlas

Prepositions

  • atlas of [region]
  • in the atlas
  • on page X of the atlas

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

The word comes from Atlas, a giant in Greek myth who was punished by Zeus to hold up the sky on his shoulders. In the 1500s the Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator put a picture of this giant on the cover of a bound collection of maps, and the name stuck for any such book. The anatomy sense, the top neck bone that 'holds up' the skull, was borrowed in the 1600s from the same image of a figure carrying a heavy load.