circus
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A performance given by a traveling company of acrobats, clowns, and trained animals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
surkuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɝkəs
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.
noun
A performance given by a traveling company of acrobats, clowns, and trained animals
“The children always love to go to the circus.”
A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.
A travelling company of entertainers; including trained animals
“He ran away from home to join the circus.”
A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.
figurative
A spectacle; a noisy fuss; a chaotic and/or crowded place.
verb
To take part in a circus; or to be displayed as if in a circus
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A performance given by a traveling company of acrobats, clowns, and trained animals
Used this way, circus is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
“The children always love to go to the circus.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use circus
- “He ran away from home to join the circus.”noun
- “The children always love to go to the circus.”noun
- “They used the elephants to help put up the circus.”noun
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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.
An acrobat who performs acrobatic feats in a circus.
Old World harrier frequenting marshy regions.
Common harrier of North America and Europe.
Brownish European harrier.
A canvas tent to house the audience at a circus performance.
A circus with simultaneous performances in three rings.
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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.