semicircle
Americannoun
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semicircles
plural
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Also called semicircumference. half of a circle; the arc from one end of a diameter to the other.
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anything having or arranged in the form of a half of a circle.
noun
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one half of a circle
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half the circumference of a circle
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anything having the shape or form of half a circle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of semicircle
From the Latin word sēmicirculus, dating back to 1520–30. See semi-, circle
Vocabulary lists containing semicircle
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:
For instance, traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole along Earth's surface follows a semicircle, which represents the shortest possible route on a sphere.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 9, 2026
When you put it on you see before you four empty wooden chairs ranged in a semicircle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
The playa is arranged as a semicircle, and radial streets are named as if their position were a clock face.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2025
We sat on a picnic bench in a sweltering city park, and he tried to provoke me as a crowd of his fans stood in a semicircle around us, staring and heckling.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2025
Before them four police cars were fanned out in a semicircle in front of the bank entrance.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
Their battles take place in rented-out gyms, galleries and clubhouses where audiences as small as a dozen crowd around unpaid talent in cramped semicircles.
From New York Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
“Feeling valued” and “adding value” form semicircles around the target, and an outer circle replicates the four domains for each of the “value” categories in the adjacent inner ring.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 6, 2022
If the amputated upper arm of an antique sculpture looked like a circle from one angle, he would build up the rest of the figure with circles and semicircles.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 14, 2021
He draws his characters in a way that initially suggests minimal emotion: their eyes are dots, their mouths small semicircles.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 14, 2019
Use scissors to cut the circles out and then cut them in half to make semicircles for the scales.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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.
