encompass
Americanverb (used with object)
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encompasses,
present (3rd person singular)
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encompassed,
past participle, past
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encompassing
present participle
verb
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to enclose within a circle; surround
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to bring about; cause to happen; contrive
he encompassed the enemy's ruin
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to include entirely or comprehensively
this book encompasses the whole range of knowledge
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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encompasssimple
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encompassessimple
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have encompassedperfect
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has encompassedperfect
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am encompassingprogressive
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are encompassingprogressive
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is encompassingprogressive
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have been encompassingperfect progressive
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has been encompassingperfect progressive
Past
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encompassedsimple
-
had encompassedperfect
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was encompassingprogressive
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were encompassingprogressive
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had been encompassingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of encompass
Explanation
Encompass means to contain. When you see the word, picture a campus which encompasses lecture halls, a football field, a medical center, a dining hall and some parking lots. Encompass can be used when talking about anything that contains something else. A lecture on Edward Hopper might encompass all aspects of his life and art, a work of art could encompass many techniques, and a policeman's jurisdiction may encompass an entire state. The continental U.S. encompasses 48 states. This entry encompasses many examples of the word encompass in use!
Vocabulary lists containing encompass
Born a Crime
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The Things They Carried
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Akamai and Anthropic also have the option to expand the agreement to encompass another $9 billion of revenue, an option which JPMorgan analysts say follows “a path of low resistance” to be exercised.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
The board agreed to extend the review by one year at a time back to 2015, which would encompass up to 4,500 further cases and take an estimated five years to complete.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Extending the concept of “team” to encompass “community” saved Goruck after the company was started in 2008.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Stern says people will still be able to check multiple racial and ethnic identification boxes on forms to encompass all the ways they identify.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
But once you see them as a whole, once your eyes leave the individual and encompass the mass, a new quality comes into the picture.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
The district encompasses northern and inland areas of San Diego County, including San Marcos and Escondido.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
As executive chair and CEO of TKO, executive chairman of WME Group and a founder and principal investor in MARI, Emanuel’s empire now encompasses sports, entertainment, media, events, hospitality and art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
It is a period of time that encompasses the legendary Scot's dynasties at Aberdeen as well as United.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Across the French Mediterranean coast, including Corsica, that zone encompasses about 1,700 kilometers of coastline, 187 towns, and at least 164,000 residents.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
New Guinea, though it accounts for only a small fraction of the world’s land area, encompasses a disproportionate fraction of its human diversity.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
"Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry," it said.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Covitz has spent nearly three decades at the Fed, and his research has encompassed a range of topics on financial stability and credit markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
“On the case side of things, I wanted something that encompassed the totality of the show,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
Sales for the latest quarter, which encompassed the key holiday-shopping period, were $30.45 billion, down 1.5%, with same-store sales down 2.5%.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 3, 2026
MIRVs, which encompassed the land-based MX missile program, were the ultimate product of Livermore’s long quest for a high-yield, low-weight nuclear device.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Edward Albee’s “The Play About the Baby,” which he saw when he was a freshman at NYU, was another work that showed him just how elastic and encompassing drama can be.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The protected area is enormous, encompassing everything we could see through our binoculars from there.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Isak played 22 games encompassing 1,033 minutes, scoring four goals at a rate of one every 258 minutes.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
The 1858 oil painting presents a panoramic view of the Ecuadorian Andes encompassing the snow-capped volcanic peak at the top, blue glaciated ice below, and towering palm trees lower still.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The distances between islands of the Tongan archipelago, as well as the distances between Tonga and neighboring archipelagoes, were sufficiently modest that a multi-island empire encompassing 40,000 people was eventually established.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
