Cartogram

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A visual tool that distorts geographic shapes to demonstrate statistical relationships and data distributions
2. A representation of data where the physical dimensions of geographical areas are altered to depict quantitative information accurately
3. A graphical representation that modifies the size of geographic areas to reflect statistical data and relationships

Etymology: The first half of this compound goes back to a Greek word for papyrus. "Khartēs" meant a sheet of papyrus, the writing material of the ancient Mediterranean, and through Latin "charta" and Old French it gave English both "chart" and "card." A map, at its root, was a document on a sheet of papyrus. The second half, "gramma," means something written or drawn, from the Greek verb "graphein," to write. The same element appears in "graph," "diagram," and "telegram," so the compound names a drawing made of lines or shapes. The compound itself is a modern formation, built from these classical parts to name a specific kind of map. Its distinctive feature, redrawing countries so that their areas match a statistic rather than their true land size, is what the word was made to describe.