map
Pluralmaps
Pluralmaps
- 1A picture of an area, real or imagined, showing where places and other features sit in relation to one another.
Tourists crowded around the map at the train station.
The fantasy novel opens with a map of a world that never existed.
UsageA map of a place; things are shown on a map: find it on the map.
- 2To make a map of an area or show something on a map, often after surveying or examining it.
The team mapped the cave system over several months.
Surveyors must map the region before construction begins.
- 3A graphical or logical representation of any structure or system, showing where its parts are or how they relate to each other.
The genome map reveals relationships between thousands of genes.
Engineers studied a map of the network's connections before the upgrade.
Similarchart
- 4To link each thing in one set with a matching thing in another; (of things) to correspond to something.
The system maps usernames to their account settings.
Developers map keyboard buttons to specific actions.
UsageMap one thing to another; often passive: the shortcut is mapped to F2.
- 5A fictional, usually bounded area in which a game or a single session of one is played.
The team picked a snow-covered map for the final round.
Each map in the game hides its own shortcuts.
UsageYou play a map or play on a map.
Note
Level and stage overlap with it, but map keeps the sense of a bounded terrain laid out in space. That idea is carried straight over from the ordinary map.
- 6A function, especially one satisfying a particular property such as continuity or linearity.
A continuous map sends nearby points to nearby points.
The proof relies on a map between the two vector spaces.
Note
Mathematicians often choose map over function when a property matters, as in a continuous map or a linear map. The words name the same thing, and mapping is a third synonym, but map tends to arrive with an adjective naming the property it satisfies. The usual phrasing runs from one set to another, "let f be a map from ℝ to ℝ," and the verb describes what it does.
- 7To act as a function on something, sending it to another value or element.
The function maps each point on the line to a point on the curve.
A projection can map three-dimensional shapes onto a flat plane.
Note
The verb behind the mathematician's arrow notation: f: A → B is read "f maps A to B," and a ↦ f(a) is read "a maps to f(a)." The object can be a whole set or a single element, so f maps A to B while mapping every a to f(a). The noun for the same idea is a map.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The notation f: A → B denotes a function from A to B and can be read as “f maps A to B.” en.wikipedia.org
- The barred arrow denotes mapping an element to its function value. csd.uwo.ca
- A map associates each element of its domain set with a unique value; the noun is “map.” mathworld.wolfram.com
Less common meanings
- 8To assign a drive letter to a shared folder so it can be reached like a local drive.
The technician mapped the network folder to a local drive.
Users can map shared folders to access files quickly.
Oppositedisconnect
Note
A networking case of creating a correspondence. A shared folder on another machine is paired with a drive letter, so it can be opened alongside the local drives. The object can be the folder or the drive: you map a shared folder, or map a network drive. The result is often called a mapped drive.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Mapping a network folder associates its network location with a drive letter. help.fit.edu
- The resulting mapped drive is accessible through the computer's drive interface. kb.netgear.com
- 9A data structure that pairs each unique key with a value, letting the key retrieve its associated value; an associative array.
The code uses a map to link each username to a password.
Looking up a key in a map is usually very fast.
Similardictionary
Note
Programmers use this as a shorter name for an associative array, a structure that stores values under keys and retrieves them by key. Dictionary names the same idea. The name echoes the mathematical notion of a function: each key is sent to exactly one value, just as a function sends each input to one output.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Map is another name for an associative array, which stores values under keys and supports retrieval by key. cs.kzoo.edu
- Dictionary names the same data structure. cs.kzoo.edu
- Each stored key has exactly one associated value. cs.kzoo.edu
- A mathematical function assigns exactly one output to each input in its domain. en.wikipedia.org
- 10A person's face.
"With a map like that, you'll frighten the horses," my grandfather would tease whenever I sulked.
Back in his army days, Dad says, any recruit caught smirking was told to straighten his map at once.
Note
A dated British word for the face, and it still carries that period flavor. P. G. Wodehouse uses it in Jeeves in the Offing (1960), where a man's "map was flushed."
- 11Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genera Araschnia and Cyrestis, with map-like markings on their wings.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
This is a shortening of Medieval Latin mappa mundī, a compound of Latin mappa ("napkin, cloth") and mundus ("world"). It replaced Middle English mappemounde ("world map"), which came from Old French mapamonde. It is a doublet of mop, nape, and nappe.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Map shortens Medieval Latin mappa mundī; it replaced Middle English mappemounde. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English mappemounde meant world map and came from Old French mapamonde. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French mapamonde came from Medieval Latin mappa mundī. en.wiktionary.org
- Mappa mundī combines words meaning cloth and world. en.wikipedia.org
- Latin mappa meant napkin or cloth. en.wiktionary.org
- Map, mop, nape and nappe are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org