circulate
verb
Simple meaning
Become widely known and passed on.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
surkyuhlaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɝkjəleɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Become widely known and passed on
Cause to become widely known
Move around freely from person to person or from place to place
To move from person to person, as at a party
Move through a space, circuit or system, returning to the starting point
transitive
To cause (a person or thing) to move in circles or through a circuit
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Become widely known and passed on
Used this way, circulate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use circulate
- “This letter is being circulated among the faculty.”verb
- “The fan circulates the air in the room.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A decimal with a sequence of digits that repeats itself indefinitely.
Library that provides books for use outside the building.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: become widely known and passed on
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.