• # Map

#### Pronunciation

• RP & US: IPA: /mæp/
• Rhymes: -æp

#### Origin

Shortening of Middle English mapemounde ("world map"), Old French mapamonde, from Medieval Latin mappa mundī, compound of Latin mappa ("napkin, cloth") and mundus ("world"), mappa borrowed from Phoenician (compare Talmudic Hebrew מפה, contraction of (menafa, "fluttering banner")).

## Full definition of map

#### map

(plural maps)
1. A visual representation of an area, whether real or imaginary.
• 2012, w, Pixels or Perish, Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
2. (mathematics)   A function.The discrete topology is always continuous, therefore functions with discrete domains are always maps.
3. (topology)   A continuous function.
4. A diagram of components of an item.
• 2012, w, Well-connected Brains, Creating a complete map of the human connectome would therefore be a monumental milestone but not the end of the journey to understanding how our brains work.
5. The butterfly .
6. (UK, old-fashioned)   Someone's face.
• 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, And as the eye rested on him, he too filled me with pity and terror, for his map was flushed and his manner distraught. He looked like Jack Dempsey at the conclusion of his first conference with Gene Tunney, the occasion, if you remember, when he forgot to duck.
7. (board games, computer games)   A predefined and confined imaginary area where a game session takes place."I don't want to play this map again!"

#### Verb

1. To create a visual representation of a territory, etc. via cartography.
2. To inform someone of a particular idea.
3. (mathematics, transitive) To act as a function on.f maps A to B, mapping $a\in A$ to 
b\in B.
1. (topology, transitive) To act as a continuous function on.The discrete topology is always continuous, therefore functions with discrete domains are always mappings.