cartography

[ kahr-tog-ruh-fee ]

noun

1. the production of maps, including construction of projections, design, compilation, drafting, and reproduction.

cartography

/ kɑːˈtɒɡrəfɪ; ˌkɑːtəˈɡræfɪk /

noun

1. the art, technique, or practice of compiling or drawing maps or charts

cartography

/ kär-tŏg′rə-fē /

1. The art or technique of making maps or charts.

Derived Forms

• ˌcartoˈgraphically, adverb
• carˈtographer, noun
• cartographic, adjective

Other Words From

• car·to·graph [kahr, -t, uh, -graf, -grahf], noun
• car·togra·pher noun
• car·to·graph·ic [kahr-t, uh, -, graf, -ik], carto·graphi·cal adjective
• carto·graphi·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of cartography¹

1855–60; < Latin c ( h ) art ( a ) carte + -o- + -graphy

Word History and Origins

Origin of cartography¹

C19: from French cartographie, from carte map, chart

Example Sentences

And, of course, Google dominates the field of cartography, which, from the 17th to the mid-20th Century, was often a direct extension of sovereign power.

From Time

Western cartography blends with nebulous regions where tribes both lived and live, where languages were spoken and are spoken, and where Indigenous peoples and colonizers formed treaties.

From Outside Online

Hans taught himself celestial cartography for this purpose, and to create the sky-view maps that appear in both The Stars and Find the Constellations.

From Nautilus

They met in a cartography class at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1980 and started making mountain-biking maps before the sport was really a thing.

From Outside Online

The study, led by Bo Zhao from the University of Washington, is not intended to alarm anyone but rather to show the risks and opportunities involved in applying this rather infamous technology to cartography.

From TechCrunch

Beyond Baghdad the line drawn between Syria, now the property of France, and Iraq was more cartography than anthropology.

From The Daily Beast

The book is an interesting blend of forms, part cartography, philosophy, travelogue, and poetry.

From The Daily Beast

Official cartography again showed a single territory, from the sea to the river.

From The Daily Beast

Cassini was right in saying that cartography was no longer at its height as a science.

From Project Gutenberg

The bringing forward of the Cantino map confirms much of the supposed cartography.

From Project Gutenberg

We come now to two significant maps in the early history of American cartography.

From Project Gutenberg

It is to the work of Allefonsce that we probably owe another confusion of this northern cartography in the sixteenth century.

From Project Gutenberg

Hence mathematical geography (see Map), including cartography as a practical application, comes first.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• earth science
• geology
• geopolitics
• topography