polar circle

American  

noun

1. either the Arctic or the Antarctic Circle.

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polar circle British  

noun

1. a term for either the Arctic Circle Antarctic Circle

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polar circle Scientific  

1. The Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle.

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Etymology

Origin of polar circle

First recorded in 1545–55

Example Sentences

“We basically achieved everything we set out to do,” the expedition’s leader, Markus Rex, told The Associated Press by satellite phone as it left the polar circle last week.

From Washington Times • Oct. 12, 2020

The diagram shows that the maximum temperature of no place upon the Earth’s surface approaches the boiling-point of water, and that it is only within the polar circle that the mean temperature is below freezing-point.

From Are the Planets Inhabited? by Maunder, E. Walter (Edward Walter)

About eight o'clock on the morning of the 16th of March the Nautilus, following the fifty-fifth meridian, cut the Antarctic polar circle.

From Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Verne, Jules

Ptolemy supposes this to have been the Thule of Pytheas, Pliny places it within three degrees of the pole, Eratosthenes under the polar circle.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson by Stevenson, William

And the "Albatross" emerged from the polar circle on the hundred and seventy-fifth meridian.

From Robur the Conqueror by Verne, Jules