1. [n]  art consisting of a design made of small pieces of colored stone or glass
2. [n]  assembly of aerial photographs forming a composite picture
3. [n]  transducer formed by the light-sensitive surface on a television camera tube
4. [n]  a pattern resembling a mosaic
5. [n]  a freeware browser
6. [n]  viral disease in solanaceous plants (tomatoes; potatoes; tobacco) resulting in mottling and often shriveling of the leaves
7. [adj]  decorated with small pieces of colored glass or stone fitted together; "a mosaic floor"; "a tessellated pavement"
8. [adj]  of or relating to Moses or the laws and writings attributed to him; "Mosaic Law"

1. \Mo*sa"ic\, n. [F. mosa["i]que; cf. Pr. mozaic, musec,
   Sp. & Pg. mosaico, It. mosaico, musaico, LGr. ?, ?, L.
   musivum; all fr. Gr. ? belonging to the Muses. See {Muse} the
   goddess.]
   1. (Fine Arts) A surface decoration made by inlaying in
      patterns small pieces of variously colored glass, stone,
      or other material; -- called also {mosaic work}.
   2. A picture or design made in mosaic; an article decorated
      in mosaic.
   

2. \Mo*sa"ic\, a.
   Of or pertaining to the style of work called mosaic; formed
   by uniting pieces of different colors; variegated;
   tessellated; also, composed of various materials or
   ingredients.
         A very beautiful mosaic pavement.        --Addison.
   {Florentine mosaic}. See under {Florentine}.
   {Mosaic gold}.
   (a) See {Ormolu}.
   (b) Stannic sulphide, {SnS2}, obtained as a yellow scaly
       crystalline powder, and used as a pigment in bronzing and
       gilding wood and metal work. It was called by the
       alchemists {aurum musivum}, or {aurum mosaicum}. Called
       also {bronze powder}.
   {Mosaic work}. See {Mosaic}, n.
   

3. \Mo*sa"ic\, a. [From Moses.]
   Of or pertaining to Moses, the leader of the Israelites, or
   established through his agency; as, the Mosaic law, rites, or
   institutions.
   

NCSA's browser (client) for the World-Wide Web.

Mosaic has been described as "the killer application of the 1990s" because it was the first program to provide a slick multimedia graphical user interface to the Internet's burgeoning wealth of distributed information services (formerly mostly limited to FTP and Gopher) at a time when access to the Internet was expanding rapidly outside its previous domain of academia and large industrial research institutions.

NCSA Mosaic was originally designed and programmed for the X Window System by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina at NCSA. Version 1.0 was released in April 1993, followed by two maintenance releases during summer 1993. Version 2.0 was released in December 1993, along with version 1.0 releases for both the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. An Acorn Archimedes port is underway (May 1994).

Marc Andreessen, who created the NCSA Mosaic research prototype as an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois left to start Mosaic Communications Corporation along with five other former students and staff of the university who were instrumental in NCSA Mosaic's design and development.

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E-mail: <[email protected]> (X version), <[email protected]> (Macintosh), <[email protected]> (Windows version), <[email protected]> (general help).