Word.ws English Dictionary

Mercator

UK/məˈkeɪ.tə/US/mɜɹˈkeɪ.tɜɹ/

Mercator noun: synonym of Mercator projection.

Noun

Mercator (plural Mercators)

  1. Synonym of Mercator projection.
    • we have determined to go by way of Lisbon […] , if so be that Capt. Kidd our gallant or rather gallows commander understands plain sailing and Mercator, and takes us on our voyage all according to the Chart.1809, Lord Byron, letter (to Henry Drury), 25 Jun 1809
    • The Mercator has been a favorite schoolroom map because it shows almost the whole world simply—in a single continuous panel. It does not seem to distort shapes.1964, David Greenhood, Mapping, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 128

Examples of Mercator in a sentence

  • In the Mercator projection, the line of intersection between the cylinder and the sphere is the equator, while in the Traverse Mercator this line is a meridian.2018, Julio Sanchez, Maria P. Canton, Space Image Processing, Routledge, →ISBN, page 191:
  • Most digital maps are displayed in the Web Mercator projection but this is slowly changing.2020, Gretchen N. Peterson, GIS Cartography […] , 3rd edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 144:
  • […] saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was “marginal”, despite being the world’s second-largest continent by area, with more than 1 billion people.2025 August 15, Selma Malika Haddadi, quotee, “African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that shrinks continent’s size”, in The...

Synonyms of Mercator

Forms of Mercator

pluralMercators

Origin of Mercator

From Gerardus Mercator, Latinized name of Gerard de Cremer (1512–1594), Flemish cartographer and mathematician, from Latin mercātor (“merchant”).

Words formed from Mercator

Phrases with Mercator

Questions about Mercator

What does Mercator mean?
Mercator means synonym of Mercator projection.
How do you use Mercator in a sentence?
In the Mercator projection, the line of intersection between the cylinder and the sphere is the equator, while in the Traverse Mercator this line is a meridian.
What part of speech is Mercator?
Mercator is a noun.
How do you pronounce Mercator?
Mercator is pronounced /məˈkeɪ.tə/ (UK).
What is the plural of Mercator?
The plural of Mercator is Mercators.

Words near Mercator in the dictionary

  1. mercar
  2. mercarbide
  3. mercars
  4. mercat
  5. mercatantes
  6. Mercator
  7. Mercator projection
  8. Mercator projections
  9. mercatorial
  10. Mercatorian
  11. mercatorism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mercator (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Mercator.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mercator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.