Circulated

How to spell circulated

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce circulated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does circulated mean?

1. verbPassed around or distributed something, such as information or documents, from one person to another.
2. verbMoved continuously around a closed system, as blood, air or water does.

Circulated in a sentence

• The revised agenda was circulated to every department before the meeting.

• Warm air circulated through the ducts and heated the whole building.

• Rumours about the merger circulated quickly through the office.

• The pump circulated coolant around the engine to stop it overheating.

Where does circulated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun circulus, meaning 'a small ring' or 'little circle', which was itself a diminutive of circus, 'a ring' or 'circular arena'. From circulus the Latins formed the verb circulare, meaning 'to form a circle' or 'to move around in a ring', and its past participle circulatus gave English the verb 'circulate'. The word entered English in the late 1400s, at first in the technical vocabulary of alchemy and medicine, where a liquid was said to circulate when it moved round and returned to its starting point. From that literal sense of moving in a closed loop came the figurative meaning of passing something from person to person, as a rumour or a document does. The same circulus root sits behind 'circle', 'circuit' and 'circular', and remembering that ring at the heart of the word explains why the spelling keeps the 'circ' opening and the unstressed 'u' before the '-late' ending.

How the word is built

• circ- (from Latin circulus, a little ring)
• -ul- (diminutive)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ed (past tense)