circumstance

• circumstaunce (obsolete)

From Old French circonstance, from Latin circumstantia

• (Received Pronunciation, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːkəmst(ə)ns/, /-ɑːns/, /-æns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝ.kəm.ˌstæns/

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• Hyphenation: cir‧cum‧stance

circumstance (countable and uncountable, plural circumstances)

1. That which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, The Broken Heart

     The circumstances are well known in the country where they happened.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace‎:

     “The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas. […]”

2. An event; a fact; a particular incident.
   • (Can we date this quote by Addison?)

     The sculptor had in his thoughts the conqoeror weeping for new worlds, or the like circumstances in history.

   • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, p. 20:

     Then another circumstance happened, which made a lasting impression on my memory, though I was but a small child.

3. Circumlocution; detail.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene v]:

     So without more circumstance at all
     I hold it fit that we shake hands and part.

4. Condition in regard to worldly estate; state of property; situation; surroundings.
   • (Can we date this quote by Addison?)

     When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

circumstance (third-person singular simple present circumstances, present participle circumstancing, simple past and past participle circumstanced)

1. To place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources.
   • 1858, Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne, Chapter 8:

     Tidings had in some shape reached is ears that his father was not comfortably circumstanced as regarded money.

   • 1949, Diderot studies, volume 11, page 170:

     While also taxing Ferrein with the same motives, Diderot's account of his doings is much more circumstanced than La Mettrie's, and also much more amusing, thanks to the interpolation of the «bijoux» motif.