circle

Borrowed from Latin circulus. Replaced Middle English cercle, from Old French cercle, from the same Latin source.

• enPR: sûrʹ-kəl, IPA^(key): /ˈsɜɹkəl/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [ˈsɜː.kəɫ]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈsɝ.kəɫ]

  • Audio (US)

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  • Audio (AU)

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• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kəl
• Hyphenation: cir‧cle

circle (plural circles)

1. (geometry) 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: coil (not in mathematical use), ring (not in mathematical use), loop (not in mathematical use)

   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).

2. 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.

   Synonyms: disc, disk (in mathematical and general use), round (not in mathematical use; UK & Commonwealth only)

3. Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.

   Put on your dunce-cap and sit down on that circle.

4. A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.

   Synonyms: arc, curve

   move in a circle

5. Orbit.

   Synonym: orbit

6. A specific group of persons; especially one who shares a common interest.

   Synonyms: bunch, gang, group

   inner circle

   circle of friends

   literary circle

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay

     As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     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.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     “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—!"

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     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.

7. (cricket) 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.
8. (Wicca) 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.
9. (South Africa) A traffic circle or roundabout.
   • 2011, Charles E. Webb, Downfall and Freedom, page 120:

     He arrived at the lakefront and drove around the circle where the amusement park and beach used to be when he was a kid […]

10. (obsolete) Compass; circuit; enclosure.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

      in the circle of this forest

11. (astronomy) 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.
12. A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

      Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.

13. (logic) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Glanvill

      That heavy bodies descend by gravity; and, again, that gravity is a quality whereby a heavy body descends, is an impertinent circle and teaches nothing.

14. Indirect form of words; circumlocution.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Fletcher

      Has he given the lie, / In circle, or oblique, or semicircle.

15. A territorial division or district.

    The ten Circles of the Holy Roman Empire were those principalities or provinces which had seats in the German Diet.

16. (in the plural) A bagginess of the skin below the eyes from lack of sleep.

    After working all night, she had circles under her eyes.

• circular
• circulate
• circus

• Pitcairn-Norfolk: sirkil

circle (third-person singular simple present circles, present participle circling, simple past and past participle circled)

1. (transitive) To travel around along a curved path.
   • Alexander Pope

     Other planets circle other suns.

2. (transitive) To surround.
   • Dampier

     Their heads are circled with a short turban.

   • Coleridge

     So he lies, circled with evil.

3. (transitive) To place or mark a circle around.

   Circle the jobs that you are interested in applying for.

4. (intransitive) To travel in circles.

   Vultures circled overhead.

• circle the drain

• cleric