circumference

From Latin circumferentia, from circum (“around”) + ferō (“I carry”). Displaced native Old English ymbgang.

• (UK) enPR: sûkŭm'frəns, IPA^(key): /sɜːˈkʌmfɹəns/, enPR: səkŭm'frəns, IPA^(key): /səˈkʌmfɹəns/

  • Audio (UK):

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• (US) enPR: sûrkŭm'frəns, IPA^(key): /sɝːˈkʌmfɹəns/, enPR: sərkŭm'frəns, IPA^(key): /sɚˈkʌmfɹəns/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) enPR: səkŭm'frəns, IPA^(key): /səˈkamfɹəns/
• Hyphenation: cir‧cum‧fer‧ence
• Rhymes: -ʌmfɹəns

circumference (plural circumferences)

1. (geometry) The line that bounds a circle or other two-dimensional figure.
2. (geometry) The length of such a line.
3. (obsolete) The surface of a round or spherical object.
4. (graph theory) The length of the longest cycle of a graph.

• (geometry): perimeter, umstroke
• (distance measured around any object): girth
• (distance measured around a race track): lap

• diameter
• radius
• perimeter

circumference (third-person singular simple present circumferences, present participle circumferencing, simple past and past participle circumferenced)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To include in a circular space; to bound.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     Nor is the vigour of this great body included only in itself, or circumferenced by its surface