Make Your Point: AMBIENT

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pronounce AMBIENT:

AM bee yunt

Hear it.

connect this word to others:

Today we're checking out the lovely, precise word ambient, which traces back to the Latin ambīre, "to go around."

Ambīre also gave us the words below. Can you recall them?

1. An amb__ is a figurative space or area around some specific person or thing.

2. Something amb______ seems to wander around in meaning: it's not clear or not definite, so you could interpret it in two or more ways.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Ambient" has Latin bits that literally mean "going around." We've used it in English since the 1500s to mean "surrounding, encircling."

Ambient things are in our immediate environment, like ambient light, ambient sound, ambient heat, or an ambient mood or emotion. In other words, ambient things are all around us, physically or figuratively.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "ambient light," "ambient temperature," "the island and the ambient sea."

Other forms:

The adverb is "ambiently."

For the noun, you can spell it "ambience" or "ambiance." Both spellings are listed in dictionaries. "Ambience" is the older spelling and might still be the more common one, while "ambiance" came into English later on through French, specifically as an art term. So, you pronounce "ambience" as "AM bee unce," while you give "ambiance" a fancier French sound, "OM bee ons." If you like, listen: "Ambience" is the more natural, more common noun; and "ambiance" is the rarer, more French version.

how to use it:

We most often use the common word "ambient" to talk literally about conditions in our immediate bubble of existence, like ambient light, heat, and sound. "Ambient" helps us emphasize the three-dimensionality of those things: how they seem to completely surround us—compared to, say, the flatness of "background" noise.

We can also get figurative. Ambient music, for example, is mood music, designed to envelop you completely in soothing sounds. And an ambient mood, tone, or emotion seems to completely encircle (or more precisely, ensphere) some particular place or time.

When we use the noun, "ambience" (or "ambiance," here's the difference), we almost always use it figuratively as a stylish synonym of "tone," "mood," "atmosphere," or "environment," as in "The restaurant offers hip food and an even hipper ambience."

examples:

"Movements and the rustle of clothing, the tapping of feet, the ambient whispering, suddenly stopped."
— Nora Raleigh Baskin; Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story; 2016

"This is a poem that uncoiled itself in an early spring. I was thinking of the season's renewed taste for the naive, and the peculiar combination of melancholy, ambient friskiness, inconsistency, and painful malleability inspired by its weathers."
— Sandra Lim, Poets.org, 1 May 2023

has this page helped you understand "ambient"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "ambient" without saying "encircling" or "encompassing."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "It's quiet (somewhere), with only the ambient (hum, buzz, whirr, chirping, or any other continuous sound) of (something)."

Example: "It's quiet in the kitchen, with only the ambient hum of the ice maker."

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for May is "The Rock & Roll Hall of Game."

It's inspired by a Jeopardy! category called Foodstock.

I'll give you a clue, and you'll try to come up with the tweaked name of a group or solo artist from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

For example, if I give you "They're an American boy band fond of surfing, California, rich vocal harmonies, and helping the Mario Brothers rescue the princess," then you give me "The Peach Boys" (a playful blend of "The Beach Boys" and "Princess Peach" from the Mario games).

Try this one today: These powerful Beatles-esque vocalists took us on a psychedelic trip through our Wildest Dreams to Days of Future Passed. Now they're Out There Somewhere near a slot machine, poring dreamily over endless streams of plums, cherries, lemons, oranges, and watermelons.

To see the answer, scroll all the way down!

review this word:

1. The near-opposite of AMBIENT could be

A. STILL.
B. SILENT.
C. ABSENT.

2. There's a prescription sleep aid called Ambien. Its name may have been chosen to suggest that patients taking it will enjoy a good morning: an "AM bien." Or, in closer accordance with the meaning of "ambient," perhaps its name was chosen to suggest that the patients will be _____.

A. gently healed by sleep
B. fully enveloped in sleep
C. instantly flattened by sleep

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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