cartographer

noun

car·​tog·​ra·​pher kär-ˈtä-grə-fər How to pronounce cartographer (audio)
: one that makes maps

Did you know?

Up until the 18th century, maps were often decorated with fanciful beasts and monsters, at the expense of accurate details about places. French mapmakers of the 1700s and 1800s encouraged the use of more scientific methods in the art they called cartographie. The French word cartographie (the science of making maps), from which we get our English word cartography, was created from carte, meaning "map," and -graphie, meaning "representation by." Around the same time we adopted cartography in the mid-19th century, we also created our word for a mapmaker, cartographer.

Examples of cartographer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Full slates on Friday include ethereal worldbeat sonic cartographers Beats Antique with Thumpasaurus, Pixie and the Partygrass Boys, Squeaky Feet, Smokey the Groove and the afterparty with stilted, brass-wielding vaudevillian circus folk MarchFourth. Aaron Davis, Sacbee.com, 29 June 2025 The grant was meant to go to various freelancers in support of production costs for the book’s layout and design, archival research, a cartographer and editing. Jackie Hajdenberg, Sun Sentinel, 8 May 2025 One vessel was renamed the USS Robert Smalls after a former slave who aided the Union in the Civil War, and the other was restyled the USNS Marie Tharp in honor of a ground-breaking oceanographic cartographer, according to the New York Times. Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 4 June 2025 John Brink, a Rand McNally cartographer, came up with a solution: Creating symbols for highways that were printed on the road maps and also put on signs attached to electrical and telephone poles along those roads. Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 1 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for cartographer

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1847, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cartographer was circa 1847

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Cite this Entry

“Cartographer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cartographer. Accessed 11 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

cartographer

noun
car·​tog·​ra·​pher kär-ˈtäg-rə-fər How to pronounce cartographer (audio)
: a person who makes maps

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