circle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɜɹkəl/
enpr: sûrʹ-kəl
ipa: /ˈsɜːkəl/
ipa: /ˈsɪɹkəl/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kəl
homophone: cercal (except Scotland)
Forms: form: circles
Etymology: From Middle English circle, cercle, from Old French cercle and Latin circulus, diminutive of Latin circus (“circle, circus”), from Ancient Greek κίρκος (kírkos, “circle, ring”), related to Old English hring (“ring”). Compare also Old English ċircul (“circle, zodiac”), which came from the same Latin source.
Senses: examples: text: The set of all points (x, y) such that (x − 1)² + y² = r² is a circle of radius r around the point (1, 0).
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
synonyms: word: coil
english: not in mathematical use
translation: not in mathematical use
word: ring
english: not in mathematical use
translation: not in mathematical use
word: loop
english: not in mathematical use
translation: not in mathematical use
glosses: A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from a given point (center).
synonyms: word: disc
word: disk
english: in mathematical and general use
translation: in mathematical and general use
word: round
english: not in mathematical use; UK & Commonwealth only
translation: not in mathematical use; UK & Commonwealth only
glosses: A two-dimensional geometric figure, a disk, consisting of the set of all those points of a plane at a distance less than or equal to a fixed distance (radius) from a given point.
examples: text: Children, please join hands and form a circle.
glosses: Any shape, curve or arrangement of objects that approximates to or resembles the geometric figures.
examples: text: Cut a circle out of that sheet of metal.
glosses: Any shape, curve or arrangement of objects that approximates to or resembles the geometric figures.
Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.
examples: text: The crank moves in a circle.
glosses: Any shape, curve or arrangement of objects that approximates to or resembles the geometric figures.
A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.
examples: text: inner circle
text: circle of friends
text: literary circle
text: As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened.
ref: 1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:
text: At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
text: “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers,[…], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
text: The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
ref: 1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
synonyms: bunch
gang
group
glosses: A specific group of persons; especially one who shares a common interest.
glosses: The orbit of an astronomical body.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A line comprising two semicircles of 30 yards radius centred on the wickets joined by straight lines parallel to the pitch used to enforce field restrictions in a one-day match.
topics: Wicca
lifestyle
religion
glosses: A ritual circle that is cast three times deosil and closes three times widdershins either in the air with a wand or literally with stones or other items used for worship.
examples: text: He arrived at the lakefront and drove around the circle where the amusement park and beach used to be when he was a kid[…]
ref: 2011, Charles E. Webb, Downfall and Freedom, page 120:
glosses: A traffic circle or roundabout.
examples: text: in the circle of this forest
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
glosses: Compass; circuit; enclosure.
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: An instrument of observation, whose graduated limb consists of an entire circle. When fixed to a wall in an observatory, it is called a mural circle; when mounted with a telescope on an axis and in Y's, in the plane of the meridian, a meridian or transit circle; when involving the principle of reflection, like the sextant, a reflecting circle; and when that of repeating an angle several times continuously along the graduated limb, a repeating circle.
examples: text: Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.
examples: text: That heavy Bodies deſcend by gravity, is no better an account then we might expect from a Ruſtick: and again; that Gravity is a quality whereby an heavy body deſcends, is an impertinent Circle, and teacheth nothing.
ref: 1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter XVIII, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 171:
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.
examples: text: Has he given the lie, / In circle, or oblique, or semicircle.
ref: 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: Indirect form of words; circumlocution.
examples: text: The ten Circles of the Holy Roman Empire were those principalities or provinces which had seats in the German Diet.
glosses: A territorial division or district.
examples: text: After working all night, she had circles under her eyes.
glosses: A bagginess of the skin below the eyes from lack of sleep.
Derived terms: Antarctic Circle
Apollonian circle
arctic circle
Arctic Circle
azimuth circle
babysitting circle
Bevan circle
blood circle
blue circle rate
bolt circle
Brocard circle
Carlyle circle
Cartesian circle
center circle
centre circle
circle-A
circle back
circle changeup
circle contact lens
circle dance
circle-ellipse problem
circle game
circle gets the square
circle group
circle inversion
circle-ish
circle jerk
circle-jerk
circlejerk
circle jerker
circle lens
circlelike
circleness
circle of antisimilitude
circle of Apollonius
circle of fifths
circle of friends
circle of life
circle of the gorge
circle of Willis
circle pit
circle progression
circler
circle runner
circle sector
circle segment
circle sentence
circle sentencing
circle skirt
circle-strafe
circle strafe
circle time
Circleville
circlewise
circley
circline
circlip
circlish
circloid
circulene
circuline
circumcircle
circumscribed circle
come full circle
corn circle
count circle
crop circle
datum circle
declination circle
demicircle
doujin circle
dress circle
druid's circle
Dupont Circle
e-circle
elf circle
encircle
equinoctial circle
excircle
face-off circle
fairy circle
family circle
fielding circle
Ford circle
full circle
generalised circle
generalized circle
gorge circle
great circle
great-circle arc
great circle arc
great circle route
green circle
gyrocircle
Hardy-Littlewood circle method
hemicircle
hermeneutic circle
hour circle
hut circle
ice circle
imperial circle
incircle
inner circle
inscribed circle
intercircle
Knight of the Golden Circle
Lufbery circle
magic circle
Malfatti circle
math circle
maxicircle
megacircle
midcircle
minicircle
Mohr's circle
moral circle
mosh circle
mural circle
nine-point circle
nine points circle
oblique circle
on deck circle
orthotomic circle
osculating circle
parhelic circle
parquet circle
perfect circle
photon circle
polar circle
polygon-circle graph
prayer circle
pseudocircle
quadrature of the circle
quality circle
quarter circle
quasicircle
recircle
red circle rate
reflecting circle
rescue circle
semi-circle
sewing circle
shooting circle
small circle
social circle
speak in circles
Spieker circle
square circle
squared circle
square the circle
squircle
stone circle
study circle
subcircle
supercircle
swing round the circle
talking circle
timber circle
turning circle
unit circle
Valeriepieris circle
vertical circle
vicious circle
vicious circle principle
virtuous circle
watch circle
Willis circle
winner's circle
Related terms: circular
circulate
circus