surroundings

British  

/ səˈraʊndɪŋz /

plural noun

1. the conditions, scenery, etc, around a person, place, or thing; environment

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Explanation

Your surroundings are the things all around you. When you park your car in a huge lot, paying attention to your surroundings can help you find the car again later. You can use the noun surroundings to mean the nearby environment — all of the objects close by, as well as the location itself — and also the circumstances or conditions where you are. When someone builds a house, the surroundings will help determine which direction it will face and how many windows it will have. Surroundings stems from surround, "be all around," but originally "flood or overflow."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

surroundings

Retractable glass doors connect the interior to an outdoor terrace, allowing the living spaces to open directly onto the scenic surroundings.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

Octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish possess some of the most sophisticated nervous systems in the animal kingdom, giving them remarkable abilities such as solving problems and rapidly changing their appearance to blend into their surroundings.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

Ezri Konsa was brought in from Aston Villa for £55m and, despite his quality, is still getting used to his new surroundings.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

This enchantment was captured by a 24-year-old Virginia Woolf, who visited an English fen and its surroundings in 1906, and described the area as a “strange, gray-green, undulating, dreaming, philosophizing and remembering land.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Suddenly I feel like I’m in zero gravity, untethered from my surroundings.

From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera

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Related Words

• ambience
• atmosphere
• background
• climate
• environment
• environs
• location
• milieu
• mise en scène
• neighborhood
• setting

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