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circumambient

/ˌsərkəmˈæmbiənt/
IPA guide

If something is circumambient, it's all around something or someone. You might escape the circumambient conversation at a party to go out to the quiet garden filled with the circumambient fragrance of flowers.

The word circumambient is made up of the Latin roots circum-, meaning "around," and ambient, meaning "going about." It describes something that goes or extends all around a central point. Circumambient is often used to describe things like atmospheric conditions or abstract forces that completely surround a person or object. Think of the continuous, circumambient sounds of a busy city, the circumambient gloom of a dense fog, or the circumambient tension in a room filled with hostile people who don't like each other.

Definitions of circumambient
  1. adjective
    encompassing or surrounding
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