cartography

noun

car·​tog·​ra·​phy kär-ˈtä-grə-fē 

: the science or art of making maps

cartographic

ˌkär-tə-ˈgra-fik 

adjective

or less commonly cartographical

ˌkär-tə-ˈgra-fi-kəl 

cartographically

ˌkär-tə-ˈgra-fi-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Examples of cartography in a Sentence

She studied cartography in college.

Recent Examples on the Web

Over the past few years, Smith and his colleagues have built upon antigenic cartography by adding a third dimension to their maps. —IEEE Spectrum, 1 Feb. 2022

With the founding of Israel in 1947 and the Arab-Israeli war the next year, Ms. Eshel entered the Israeli Air Force and rose to become a lieutenant of cartography. —Alex Traub, New York Times, 29 Dec. 2023

These ones from Xplorer Maps have been created through a partnership with the National Park Service and each of the park’s official nonprofit partners in an effort to ensure the cartography is geographically accurate and culturally relevant. —Joni Sweet, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023

Each star’s composition records its birthplace, age, and natal ingredients, so studying starlight enables a form of galactic cartography—as well as genealogy. —WIRED, 12 Nov. 2023

Each star’s composition records its birthplace, age and natal ingredients, so studying starlight enables a form of galactic cartography — as well as genealogy. —Quanta Magazine, 28 Sep. 2023

Well, sort of: A grimly cheerful piece of cartography produced in 1940 by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company shows various awful things that can happen to a person. —Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Sep. 2023

During that time, the troops learn everything from marksmanship and cartography to radios and engineering. —Siobhán O'Grady and Kostiantyn Khudov, Anchorage Daily News, 11 Apr. 2023

The principal focus would be cartography, with the work to be carried out in terrain utterly unknown to either science or geography. —Larry Rohter, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Apr. 2023

Word History

Etymology

French cartographie, from carte card, map + -graphie -graphy — more at card entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1847, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

cartography

noun

car·​tog·​ra·​phy kär-ˈtäg-rə-fē 

: the making of maps

cartographic

ˌkärt-ə-ˈgraf-ik 

adjective