ambiance

See also: Ambiance and ambiancé

English

Alternative forms

• ambience

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French ambiance.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒm.bi.ɒns/, /ˈæm.bi.əns/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑm.bi.ɑns/, /ˈæm.bi.əns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

ambiance (countable and uncountable, plural ambiances)

1. A particular mood or atmosphere of an environment or surrounding influence.
   • 1979 April 14, Roger L. Winters, “Gay Politics”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

     The pressures […] on a post-pubescent youngster, still half-child-half-man/woman, are difficult enough for someone whose sexuality fits into the accepted ambiance, i.e., heterosexuality.

2. (computer graphics, 3D models) A secondary color of a polygon that becomes more pronounced with shading.

Related terms

• ambient

Translations

particular mood or atmosphere of an environment

• Bulgarian: атмосфера (bg) (atmosfera)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 氣氛 / 气氛 (zh) (qìfēn), 氛围 (zh)

• Dutch: sfeer (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: etoso
• Faroese: huglag n, dámur m, stemningur m, umhvørvi n
• Finnish: ilmapiiri (fi), tunnelma (fi)
• German: Stimmung (de) f, Atmosphäre (de) f, Ambiente (de) n, Umgebung (de) f, Ambiance f (Switzerland)
• Greek: ατμόσφαιρα (el) f (atmósfaira)
• Hebrew: אווירה (he) f (avira)
• Latvian: atmosfēra (lv) f
• Norwegian: stemning c
• Polish: atmosfera (pl) f
• Portuguese: atmosfera (pt) f, ambiência f
• Russian: обстано́вка (ru) f (obstanóvka), атмосфе́ра (ru) f (atmosféra)
• Serbo-Croatian: ambijent (sh) m
• Spanish: ambiente (es) f, atmósfera (es) f, ambientación f
• Swedish: atmosfär (sv) c, stämning (sv) c, känsla (sv) c
• Turkish: ambiyans (tr)

secondary color of a polygon in 3D graphics

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} ambijent (sh) m

See also

• atmosphere
• mood

French

Etymology

From ambiant +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.bjɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: ambiancent, ambiances
• Hyphenation: am‧biance
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

ambiance f (plural ambiances)

1. ambiance, atmosphere, environment, milieu
   • 1971, Normand R. Cartier, Le Bossu désenchanté:

     L’individu, quels que soient ses crimes ou ses défaillances, est considéré comme victime de l’hérédité et de l’ambiance, double responsabilité collective.

     No matter his crimes or failings, the individual is considered the victim of heredity and the environment, in both ways a collective responsibility.

   • 1981, Gabriel Domenech, Éloge de l’ivresse, Albin Michel, page 24:

     Quant à l’ambiance, elle est faite de visions terrifiantes, de hurlements de douleur, de dégueulis rosâtres, de vomissements d’injures, de transpirations gluantes, de gémissements épouvantables, de pourrissements vivants, de râles atroces, de décompositions lentes et de morts qui n’en finissent plus […]

     As for the environment, it is made of terrifying visions, shrieks of pain, pinkish puke, vomiting of insults, sticky sweat, appalling moans, living putrefaction, atrocious death rattles, slow decomposition and deaths which no longer end […]

Descendants

• → English: ambiance
• → Turkish: ambiyans

Verb

ambiance

1. inflection of ambiancer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “ambiance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “ambiance” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.
• “ambiance” in Dico en ligne Le Robert.