- present participle of surround.
surrounding
Americannoun
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something that surrounds.
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surroundings, environing things, circumstances, conditions, etc.; environment.
He was too sick to be aware of his surroundings.
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the act of encircling or enclosing.
adjective
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enclosing or encircling.
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being the environment or adjacent area.
Synonym Usage
See environment.
Etymology
Origin of surrounding
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: literally “inundation”; see origin at surround, -ing 1, -ing 2
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.
“I would have never, never gotten onstage if I would have known that her body was still sitting there with her family surrounding her,” Sheila E. said in video statement after the festival.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
One possibility, a huge possibility, is that the catheter became dislodged from her vein and then was spilling the drugs into the surrounding tissue.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026
Early excitement surrounding Meta’s artificial-intelligence assistant Muse has sent the stock higher — but Wells Fargo sees even bigger gains ahead.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
In July, a villager used a ladder to climb over a wall surrounding the mine’s waste-rock area and “proceeded to search for gold-bearing rocks,” according to the claimants’ court filing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
When neutrons fly away from one fuel rod, the surrounding water slows them to the optimal speed before they reach the next uranium nuclei, making them more likely to create fission.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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.
