Something that surrounds; encompassing material, substance or shape.
"The ambient air inside the sealed room was thick with a fine, dusty haze."
In plain English: An ambient is an atmosphere that surrounds you and fills up your space without any specific focus.
"The ambient noise from the busy street made it hard to hear my friend."
Encompassing on all sides; surrounding; encircling; enveloping.
"The ambient air in the quiet library was cool and still, completely encompassing every reader on all sides."
In plain English: Ambient describes something that surrounds you and is present everywhere at once, like background noise or soft lighting.
"The ambient temperature in the room was quite comfortable for sleeping."
Usage: Use ambient to describe the general atmosphere of a place rather than specific objects within it, such as saying "ambient temperature" instead of an object that is merely surrounded by air. This word specifically refers to qualities like light or sound that fill and surround an entire space uniformly.
The word ambient comes from the Latin verb ambiō, meaning "to go around." It entered English to describe something that surrounds or permeates a space.