periphery

[ puh-rif-uh-ree ]

/ pəˈrɪf ə ri /

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noun, plural pe·riph·er·ies.

the external boundary of any surface or area.

the external surface of a body.

the edge or outskirts, as of a city or urban area.

the relatively minor, irrelevant, or superficial aspects of the subject in question: The preliminary research did not, of course, take me beyond the periphery of my problem.

Anatomy. the area in which nerves end.

OTHER WORDS FOR periphery

1 circumference, perimeter.

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OPPOSITES FOR periphery

1, 2 center.

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Origin of periphery

1350–1400; <Late Latin peripherīa<Greek periphéreia circumference, literally, a bearing round, equivalent to peri-peri- + phér(ein) to bear¹ + -eia-y³; replacing Middle English periferie<Medieval Latin periferīa, variant spelling of Late Latin peripherīa

Words nearby periphery

peripheralism, peripheral nervous system, peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumour, peripheral vision, peripheric, periphery, periphrasis, periphrastic, periphyton, periplasm, periproct

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use periphery in a sentence

Shifting D&I from the periphery to the core of company operations may seem like a heavy lift, but it’s well within leaders’ grasp.
Getting involved in diversity and inclusion is optional. That’s a problem|jakemeth|October 5, 2020|Fortune
Yet that temporal component has usually been relegated to the periphery of reinforcement learning models.
Reasons Revealed for the Brain’s Elastic Sense of Time|Jordana Cepelewicz|September 24, 2020|Quanta Magazine
Almost universally, they’re made by brands on the periphery of the conventional bike industry and its independent-dealer sales channel.
Do You Want to Buy an E-Cargo Bike? Read This First.|Joe Lindsey|August 30, 2020|Outside Online
If we read just global foreign correspondent reporting about the Hong Kong protests, it might boil it down to the most important call and the most important point of these protests, but it does not flesh out everything else that’s in the periphery.
South China Morning Post CEO Gary Liu on navigating a perilous time for Hong Kong|Pierre Bienaimé|July 14, 2020|Digiday

We could see the level of the refugee crisis that was coming and the degree to which that could destabilize the countries around the periphery of Syria.
Speak Softly and Carry Big Data (Ep. 395)|Stephen J. Dubner|October 31, 2019|Freakonomics
He just walked around the periphery of the development and proceeded on.
Exclusive: Inside a Cop-Killer’s Final Hours|Michael Daly|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Another U.S. intelligence official said, “Boko Haram is really on the periphery of the al Qaeda universe.”
Boko Haram’s Bin Laden Connection|Eli Lake|May 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The problem is, that periphery has now grown much closer thanks to the location of Sochi.
The Volgograd Bombings and the Return of Big Terror to Russia|Michael Weiss|January 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Despite the hype over gentrification, urban economies—including that of New York—still underperform their periphery.
The Revolt Against Urban Gentry|Joel Kotkin|November 30, 2013|DAILY BEAST
We were on the outer periphery of the operation, too distant to see the scene clearly without binoculars.
The Devil’s Drug: The True Story of Meth in New Mexico|Nick Romeo|August 24, 2013|DAILY BEAST
It is sometimes indented, with its convex side in contact with the periphery of the cell.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
So the intervals will be equal in the directions both of the periphery and of the length.
Ten Books on Architecture|Vitruvius
There is something definable there, in the periphery of those ancient ruins.
The Ghost Breaker|Charles Goddard
His eyes were still on the needles that kept creeping higher and higher along the calibrated periphery of the meters.
Unwise Child|Gordon Randall Garrett
The centers of the crosses are occupied by the central hole of the whorl, while the arms extend to the periphery.
The Swastika|Thomas Wilson

British Dictionary definitions for periphery

periphery

/ (pəˈrɪfərɪ) /

noun plural -eries

the outermost boundary of an area

the outside surface of something

anatomy the surface or outermost part of the body or one of its organs or parts

Word Origin for periphery

C16: from Late Latin peripherīa, from Greek, from peri- + pherein to bear

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

periphery

OTHER WORDS FOR periphery

OPPOSITES FOR periphery

Origin of periphery

Words nearby periphery

Words related to periphery

How to use periphery in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for periphery

Word Origin for periphery