Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The boundary line of a circle.
- noun The boundary line of an area or object.
- noun The length of such a line.
- noun The margin or area surrounding something.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The line that bounds a circle; by extension, the bounding line of any regular plane curvilinear figure; a periphery: as, the circumference of a circle or an ellipse. The circumference of a sphere is that of a great circle of the sphere.
- noun Hence Loosely, any bounding line: as, the circumference of a city.
- noun The space included in a circle; anything circular in form.
- noun A going about; circumlocution.
- To include in a circular or spherical space.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The line that goes round or encompasses a circular figure; a periphery.
- noun A circle; anything circular.
- noun The external surface of a sphere, or of any orbicular body.
- transitive verb obsolete To include in a circular space; to bound.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geometry The
line thatbounds acircle or othertwo-dimensional figure - noun geometry The
length of such a line - noun obsolete The surface of a round or spherical object
- verb obsolete, transitive To
include in acircular space; tobound .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the boundary line encompassing an area or object
- noun the length of the closed curve of a circle
- noun the size of something as given by the distance around it
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word circumference.
Examples
-
It follows directly from this discussion, that for our sphere-beings the circumference of a circle first increases with the radius until the circumference of the universe is reached, and that it thenceforward gradually decreases to zero for still further increasing values of the radius.
Chapter 31. The Possibility of a “Finite” and Yet “Unbounded” Universe 1920
-
This means the circumference is about 1000 meters, so v is 1000 meters per minute, which yields a simulated gravity about 1/6 of Earth's -- the same as the moon (though the people inside move as though the gravity is Earth-normal).
8/1/08: Launch Pad, day 2 prof_brotherton 2008
-
It makes tubes 44 stitches in circumference or straight pieces up to 44 stitches wide and takes up to a sort of medium chunky weight of yarn - just right for a tubular scarf but a bit narrow to make hats.
Archive 2009-01-01 MadeleineS 2009
-
It makes tubes 44 stitches in circumference or straight pieces up to 44 stitches wide and takes up to a sort of medium chunky weight of yarn - just right for a tubular scarf but a bit narrow to make hats.
Hurrah for new toys! MadeleineS 2009
-
Unfortunately that means my jeans are quite uncomforable to wear, because the belt circumference is now at least two holes smaller than the waistband of the jeans.
-
Lord Howe is a ring of land some one hundred and fifty miles in circumference, several hundred yards wide at its widest, and towering in places to a height of ten feet above sea level.
MAUKI 2010
-
Paul Rodriguez was a Mexican porter who from the upper and lateral part of his head had a horn 14 cm in circumference and divided into three shafts, which he concealed under a cap.
Human horns frankwu 2010
-
The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle of pounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and from three to five feet above high-water mark.
THE HOUSE OF MAPUHI 2010
-
The park circumference is approximately 40 kilometers (km), extending from the bridge at Ürgüp then leading north for 6 km following the River Damsa.
Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappodocia, Turkey 2008
-
Large Hadron collider is 27 Km in circumference and will accelerates protons to 99. 99999% the speed of light (I might not have gotten the right number of 9s, sorry if this spoils your calculations if you are trying this at home).
Boing Boing 2008
fbharjo commented on the word circumference
mercuric fence
January 27, 2016