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Biologists explore the effects of ambient light on plants; acoustics experts try to control ambient sound; and meteorologists study ambient pressure, air, or temperature. All this can make ambient seem like a technical term, but when it first saw light of day, that all-encompassing adjective was as likely to be used in poetry as in science. John Milton used it in Paradise Lost, and Alexander Pope wrote of a mountain "whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd." Both poets and scientists who use ambient owe a debt to the Latin verb ambire, meaning "to go around," the grandparent of our English word.
Synonyms
Examples of ambient in a Sentence
Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press, 9 Apr. 2024
Still, ambient artifacts above normal hearing range can mysteriously add air and life to music.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 9 Apr. 2024
These climbing vines enjoy bright, ambient light but can survive in lower light conditions as well.
—Essence, 2 Apr. 2024
Air-source models instead utilize ambient air as their source.
—Tik Root, WIRED, 30 Mar. 2024
Other moments in the show find more aesthetic ways of framing the world outside: Lotus L. Kang’s installation of slowly fogging sheets of light-sensitive film drape from the ceiling, reacting to the ambient light, space and time of the exhibition.
—Martha Schwendener, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
Higher power means more heat generated – creating demand for equipment to cool down the servers to ambient temperature.
—Peter Cohan, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
That alkaline outflow would mix with C02 in the ambient seawater to create bicarbonate, which is a stable way to store carbon.
—IEEE Spectrum, 26 Mar. 2024
The ambient godfather contributed vocals and instruments to Manzanera’s solo debut, 1975’s Diamond Head, a knockout album that found Manzanera imbuing his heady, playful art rock with his Latin roots for the first time on wax.
—Joe Lynch, Billboard, 25 Mar. 2024
Pamela Porter, Better Homes & Gardens, 21 Mar. 2024
Reznor took this ambition further still: Individual songs are punctuated by hard-tack changes of direction—from fast, thrashing guitars and punishing drum beats, to moments of slow-burning ambient and piano interludes—becoming the sound of a mind at war with itself.
—Adam Steiner, SPIN, 8 Mar. 2024
Seamless door handles 64-color ambient lighting, a wireless smartphone charger, biometric fingerprint scanner, and illuminated door sills add to the upscale offerings.
—James Raia, The Mercury News, 18 Feb. 2024
Instead, Yorke relies on a percussive mix of industrial, IDM, and ambient.
—Jon O'Brien, SPIN, 26 Jan. 2024
His curious solo pursuits spanned pop and ambient, the worldly and the avant-garde; his film scores earned him an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Grammy.
—The New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2024
Point the fixtures in different directions to give you both ambient and task lighting.
—Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 1 Dec. 2023
Their cosmic, electronic mix of jazz and Afrobeat grew to incorporate ambient and spoken word elements on their second album, 2019’s Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, followed by The Afterlife the same year.
—Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 20 Oct. 2023
Acropolis, with Roger Eno: 2021 Brian Eno’s brother Roger is also an accomplished artist, with more than 20 albums of his own and a handful of collaborations with Brian—including their 1983 space ambient masterpiece with Daniel Lanois, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.
—Jeff Terich, SPIN, 18 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ambient.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Ambient.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambient. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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ambient
adjective
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