Meanings
present singular third person circumambulates · participle present circumambulating · participle past circumambulated · past circumambulated
- transitiveTo walk around something in a circle, especially for a ritual purpose.
Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see?—Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 1”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-
- Ancient Greekκίρκος (kírkos)
- Latincircus
- Latincircum
- Latincircum-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ent-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂énts?
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂m̥bʰí
- Proto-Italic*amβi-
- Latinambi-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂elh₂-
- Proto-Italic*alō
- Latin*alō
- Latinambulō
- Latincircumambulō
- Latincircumambulātus
- Englishcircumambulate
Latin circumambulātus, past participle of circumambulāre (“to walk around”). Equivalent to circum- + ambulate.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic طَافَ
- طَافَ (ṭāfa)to walk around
Finnish kävellä ympäri, kiertää
- kävellä ympärito walk around
- kiertääto walk around
Hungarian körbejár
- körbejárto walk around
Māori porowhawhe
- porowhawheto walk around
Cite this entry
circumambulate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/circumambulate
“circumambulate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/circumambulate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “circumambulate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/circumambulate.
Source: circumambulate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.