| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| circumstance |
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| SYLLABICATION: | cir·cum·stance |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  sûr k m-st ns |
| NOUN: | 1. A condition or fact attending an event and having some bearing on it; a determining or modifying factor. 2. A condition or fact that determines or must be considered in the determining of a course of action. 3. The sum of determining factors beyond willful control. Often used in the plural: a victim of circumstance; work that will begin on Monday if circumstances permit. 4. circumstances Financial status or means: “Prior came of a good family, much reduced in circumstances” (George Sherburn). 5. Detail accompanying or surrounding an event, as in a narrative or series of events. 6. Formal display; ceremony: the pomp and circumstance of a coronation. 7. A particular incident or occurrence: Your arrival was a fortunate circumstance. See synonyms at occurrence. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: cir·cum·stanced, cir·cum·stanc·ing, cir·cum·stanc·es
To place in particular circumstances or conditions; situate. | | IDIOMS: | under no circumstances In no case; never. under (or in) the circumstances Given these conditions; such being the case. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French circonstance, from Latin circumstantia, from circumst ns, circumstant-, present participle of circumstre, to stand around : circum-, circum- + stre, to stand; see st- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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