ambient

adj

1. Encompassing on all sides; surrounding; encircling; enveloping.

   “A cup of warm tea eventually cools to the ambient temperature.”

   “This which yields or fills all space / The ambient air wide interfused”

   “Then gazing up, a glorious Pile beheld, / VVhoſe tovv'ring Summit ambient Clouds conceal'd.”

   “Diggle Station lies high up in the Pennine Chain, subject to extreme low temperatures. With this and heavy snowfall in the winter months, Diggle bids fair to compete with the Scottish lines under similar weather conditions, and the provision of unfrozen water in the higher ambient temperature of the tunnel must be a boon to harassed engine drivers whose thirsty steeds run short of water up the gruelling 1 in 125 seven-mile climb from Stalybridge.”

2. Evoking or creating an atmosphere: atmospheric.
3. Relating to, or suitable for, storage at room temperature.

   “ambient food”

   “ambient warehousing”

4. Containing objects or describing a setting that one is interested in.

   “These, then, are characterizations of the system of natural numbers within an ambient set theory. And they seem to work, in the sense that in a sufficiently strong set theory it can be shown that Peano's axioms have (up to isomorphism) a unique model (cf. Rem. 6.1.8).”

   “As much of the work in determinacy must proceed without AC, ZF serves as the ambient theory for this section, and uses of AC will be explicitly noted, reversing the usual procedure.”

   “A point in the manifold is classically represented by a vector in the ambient space.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Something that surrounds; encompassing material, substance or shape.

   “Much after this same manner, when the Air is exceeding cold through which it passes; do we find the drops of Rain, falling from the Clouds, congealed into round Hail-stones by the freezing Ambient.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The atmosphere; the surrounding air or sky; atmospheric components collectively such as air, clouds, water vapour, hail, etc.

   “It might be also, that attracted by that great void Vacuum ... all the ambients would be rarified, and particularly, the air.”

3. (uncountable)A type of modern music that creates a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere.

   “Ambient can be flabby synth mulch that needs to access cyberism and external philosophies to convince you you're not being scammed.”