circumference meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

circumference

noun

UK /sɜːˈkʌmfɹəns/ · US /sɚˈkʌmfɹəns/

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

Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences The line that bounds a circle or other two-dimensional figure.

Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences The length of such a line.

Obsolete The surface of a round or spherical object.

Graph theory, Mathematics, Sciences The length of the longest cycle of a graph.

verb

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

Obsolete To include in a circular space; to bound.

Nor is the vigour of this great body included only in itself, or circumferenced by its surface1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC: