circumambient
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of circumambient
First recorded in 1625–35; from Late Latin circumambient- (stem of circumambiēns ); see circum-, ambient
Explanation
If something is circumambient, it's all around something or someone. You might escape the circumambient conversation at a party to go out to the quiet garden filled with the circumambient fragrance of flowers. The word circumambient is made up of the Latin roots circum-, meaning "around," and ambient, meaning "going about." It describes something that goes or extends all around a central point. Circumambient is often used to describe things like atmospheric conditions or abstract forces that completely surround a person or object. Think of the continuous, circumambient sounds of a busy city, the circumambient gloom of a dense fog, or the circumambient tension in a room filled with hostile people who don't like each other.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
