map

Etymology

Shortening of Middle English mappemounde, mapemounde (“world map”), from Old French mapamonde, from Medieval Latin mappa mundī, compound of Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”) and mundus (“world”). See mop for the first component.

noun

1. A visual representation of an area, whether real or imaginary, showing the relative positions of places and other features.
   a map of Australia, a map of Lilliput
   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. 2012 March–April, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2013-02-19, page 106
   Anna, it is a map. Audio (US) (file) 2016, “Learning English (public domain)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), via VOA, archived from the original on 2017-09-25
2. A graphical or logical representation of any structure or system, showing the positions of or relationships between its components.
   a map of the Earth's magnetic field
   The 256 bytes of internal RAM are subdivided as shown in the memory map above. 2005, Craig Steiner, The 8051/8052 Microcontroller, page 9
   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. 2012 March-April, Terrence J. Sejnowski, “Well-connected Brains”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2017-04-27, page 171
3. (mathematics) A function.
   Let f be a map from ℝ to ℝ
4. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genera Araschnia (especially, Araschnia levana) and Cyrestis, having map-like markings on the wings.
5. (UK, dated) The face.
   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. 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X
6. (board games, video games) An imaginary or fictional area, often predefined and confined, where a game or a session thereof takes place.
   I don't want to play this map again!
   On top of that, each of Evolve's maps are dim, open arenas with little to interact with besides the occasional hostile organism. Feb 14 2015, Steven Strom, “Evolve Review: Middle of the food chain”, in Ars Technica
7. (computing) Synonym of associative array.

verb

1. (transitive) To represent by means of a map.
   This large atlas maps the whole world in very great detail.
   Figure 3 maps the pressure distribution within the human circulatory system.
2. (transitive) To create a map of; to examine or survey in order to gather information for a map.
   The team is mapping the route of the new railway line.
   The space probe is mapping the Earth's gravitational field.
   This equipment is designed to map the neurons of the human brain in three dimensions.
3. (intransitive, followed by a "to" phrase) To have a direct relationship; to correspond.
   This doesn't map to my understanding of how things should work.
   Significantly, the aural-oral data does not map closely to the visual linguistic landscape at NIE. 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 8
4. (transitive, followed by a "to" phrase) To create a direct relationship to; to create a correspondence with.
   Map "volume down" to the F2 key. (computing)
5. (mathematics, transitive, followed by a "to" phrase) To act as a function on something, taking it to something else.
   f maps A to B, mapping every a∈A to f(a)∈B.
6. (transitive, computing) To assign a drive letter to a shared folder.