atlas

noun

1. A bound collection of maps often including tables, illustrations or other text.
2. A bound collection of tables, illustrations, etc. on any given subject.
3. (especially)A detailed visual conspectus of something of great and multi-faceted complexity, with its elements splayed so as to be presented in as discrete a manner as possible whilst retaining a realistic view of the whole.

   “An Anatomical Atlas of Vegetable Powders Designed as an Aid to the Microscopic Analysis of Powdered Foods and Drugs”

   “In addition to classical radiology systems like angiography, CT scanner or MRI have greatly contributed to the improvement of the patient anatomy investigation. Each examination modality still carries its own information and the need to make a synthesis between them is obvious but still makes different problems hard to solve. There is no unique imaging facility which can bring out the whole set of known anatomical structures, brought together in a neuro-anatomical atlas.”

   “1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 55 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN Our perception of the body as the natural “space of the origin and distribution of disease”, a space determined by the anatomical atlas', is merely one of the various ways in which medicine has formed its “knowledge”.”

   “Finally, Subsol et al. [6] reported on a method for automatically constructing 3D morphometric anatomical atlantes which is based on the extraction of line and point features and their subsequent non-rigid registration.”

4. A family of coordinate charts that cover a manifold.
5. The uppermost vertebra of the cervical spine in the neck in humans and some other animals.

   “There are of these glands upon the first vertebra of the neck of the atlas; on which the head turns[…]”

   “Ribs and spines show through the thin layer of meat left on the carcase, and, where the head meets the body, the crucial first vertebra – the atlas – is exposed.”

6. One who supports a heavy burden; mainstay.
7. A figure of a man used as a column.
8. A sheet of paper measuring 26 inches by 34 inches.
9. An image or texture containing a number of other images or textures, so as to reduce the cost of loading them separately.

   “a glyph atlas used in font rendering”

   “a texture atlas”

10. (countable, historical, uncountable)A rich satin fabric.

    “I saw ye Taffaties and Atlasses in ye warehouse, and gave directions concerning their severall colours and stripes, ordering Mr. Charnock to use his best endeavours to encrease their quantity; […]”

    “Surat was an important port on the west coast of India from where atlases were exported on a large scale […]”

11. (US)A particular model or individual specimen of the Atlas missile and launch vehicle line.

name

1. (Greek, countable, uncountable)The son of Iapetus and Clymene, war leader of the Titans ordered by the god Zeus to support the sky on his shoulders; father to the Hesperides, the Hyades, and the Pleiades; king of the legendary Atlantis.
2. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
3. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
4. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
5. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
6. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
7. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
8. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
9. (countable, uncountable)A placename:
10. (countable)A surname.
11. (US, countable, uncountable)An SM-65, an early ICBM, soon developed into a long-lived orbital launch vehicle series.
12. A subgroup of the Berber languages.
13. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of Atlas Mountains
14. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of ATLAS
15. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (a robotic astronomical survey and early warning system optimized for detecting smaller near-Earth objects)
16. A comet, an interstellar object visiting the Solar System, on a hyperbolic orbit. Named after the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.