Meaning of map in English

map

/mæp/ uk

/mæp/

a drawing of the earth's surface, or part of that surface, showing the shape and position of different countries, political borders, natural features such as rivers and mountains, and artificial features such as roads and buildings:

a map of the world

a map of Paris

a road map

We need a large-scale map showing all the trails that we can walk on.

I'm terrible at map reading (= understanding maps).

Historic Map Works LLC/Historic Map Works/GettyImages

a drawing that gives you a particular type of information about a particular area:

He bought a map showing the population distribution of Scotland.

Rainer Lesniewski/iStock/Getty Images Plus/GettyImages

something that shows the position of stars in the sky or the features on the surface of planets:

a celestial map

a map of Mars

Science Museum/Hulton Archive/GettyImages

a very simple drawing that shows a direction of travel between one place and another:

I'll draw you a quick map if you're worried about finding the hotel.

CreativeArchetype/DigitalVision Vectors/GettyImages

More examplesFewer examples

To find your nearest UK school, we have a clickable map dividing the UK into regions.
I'm not quite sure how to get there - I'd better consult a map.
This map has contours marked at 250-metre intervals.
Let's aim for Coventry first, and then we'll have a look at the map.
On this map, demarcations between regions are shown with dotted lines.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Maps & map-making

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Astronomy

Idioms

blow, bomb, wipe, etc. something off the map

put something/someone on the map

map

verb [ T ]

/mæp/ uk

/mæp/

-pp-

to represent an area of land in the form of a map:

Parts of the mountainous region in the north of the country have still not been mapped.

to represent how the parts of something are organized or arranged:

The first human genome was mapped in 2003.

Check that all network drives are mapped correctly and are not showing up as disconnected.

to connect a set of values to another similar set, using a particular method or rule:

The motherboard is responsible for decoding the virtual addresses and mapping them to physical addresses.

The findings suggest that children learn these words and map them onto concepts already present.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Maps & map-making

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Genetics

Computer programming & software

Linking and relating

Phrasal verb

map something out

(Definition of map from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

map | Intermediate English

map

noun [ C ]

/mæp/

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a drawing that represents a region or place by showing the various features of it, such as rivers and roads, and the distances between them, so that people can get help in finding their way from one place to another:

a map of California

a New York City subway map

According to this road map, it’s 740 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina to Miami, Florida.

map

verb [ T ]

/mæp/

-pp-

to draw a representation of a place:

Archaeologists have mapped the old Roman city using aerial photography.

Phrasal verb

map something out

(Definition of map from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

map | Business English

map

noun [ C ]

GRAPHS & CHARTS

/mæp/ us

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a drawing of the Earth's surface, or part of it, showing things such as the shape and position of countries, political borders, towns, rivers, etc.:

on a map Many of these students could not even find their own country on a map.

a map of Canada/the world/Europe

a drawing that gives you a particular type of information about a particular area:

This is a map of the building showing where the fire extinguishers are located.

You can use the interactive map to find our franchises nationwide.

The carbon map was designed so cities could better analyse their overall carbon footprint.

a simple plan that shows a direction of travel between one place and another:

I'll draw you a map if you're worried about finding the hotel.

a simple plan that represents a more complicated thing, system, or idea:

This is a map of what's on our website.

We now have a conceptual map of the essential qualities of leadership.

put sth/sb on the map

to make a person, place, or thing well known or show how important it is:

The governor has managed to put this sleepy southern state in America on the map.

Phrasal verb

map sth out

(Definition of map from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of map

map

I spent the first six months mapping it.

From Huffington Post

Up to four people can play on a single map in these modes.

From VentureBeat

We can use those things to quickly resolve mapping issues.

From Huffington Post

Map of where states allow the tax-funded teaching of creationism.

From Slate Magazine

He posted the map on his website, and it soon caught the eye of other mapmakers.

From Wired

Course syllabi must be more than maps of a teacher's taste and interest.

From Huffington Post

That's a much easier problem to solve than building a real-time map of the world.

From Wired

He felt like he didn't need a lot of sleep once he had a schedule mapped out.

From ESPN

A similar map, called the cortical homunculus, was published for the male body in 1951.

From The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

Sure, their business concept is great and provides a real value, but it is their first video that really put them on the map.

From Huffington Post

There are vast regions the maps don't cover, and in may places where they do the resolution isn't detailed enough to spot these seamounts.

From Slate Magazine

We then went to his website and discovered he was even more interesting than his maps, and it was then we reached out to him.

From Wired

This super-detailed map of the ocean floor's topography is based on satellite measurements of subtle lumps on the ocean's surface.

From Wired

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.