Circumstance

How to spell circumstance

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce circumstance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does circumstance mean?

1. nounA fact or condition connected with or affecting an event, person, or situation.

Circumstance in a sentence

• The refund was issued because of one unusual circumstance.

• The refund depended on one unusual circumstance noted in the file.

Where does circumstance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin circumstantia, meaning 'the things standing around', which was built on the verb circumstare, 'to stand around'. That verb joined circum, meaning 'around', to stare, meaning 'to stand', so a circumstance was literally a condition standing around an event and shaping it. Roman writers used it to translate a Greek rhetorical idea about the surrounding details of a situation, and that sense of the conditions attending something carried straight into English. The word arrived through Old French in the 1200s and settled into its modern meaning of a fact or condition connected with an event. The same circum 'around' element survives in everyday relatives such as circle, circuit and circumference, and the stare 'to stand' root quietly explains why the word ends in -stance rather than the -stence some writers expect.

How the word is built

• circum- (around)
• sta (from stare: to stand)
• -ance (noun suffix)