Circus

How to spell circus

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce circus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does circus mean?

1. nounA travelling company of acrobats, clowns and trained performers who put on shows, usually in a tent with a central ring.
2. nounA roughly circular open space where several streets meet, common in British place names.

Circus in a sentence

• The children begged to see the circus when it came to town.

• Tourists gathered beneath the bright signs of the circus in central London.

• A trapeze artist headlined the circus that summer.

• The bus stops just before the circus where five roads converge.

Where does circus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes straight from the Latin circus, which literally meant a ring or a circular line, and which was itself related to the Greek kirkos, meaning a ring or a hoop. In ancient Rome the word named the great oval arenas where chariot races and public spectacles were held, the most famous being the Circus Maximus. English borrowed circus in the late fourteenth century, at first as a term for a Roman amphitheatre or a ring-shaped open space. The modern meaning, a travelling show of acrobats, clowns and trained animals performing in a ring, only arose in the late eighteenth century, when the showman Philip Astley staged equestrian acts in a circular arena in London. The same circ- root that gives the word its tidy ring shape also sits inside 'circle', 'circuit' and 'circulate', which is a helpful reminder that the ending is the plain Latin -us, not the -ous you might expect.

How the word is built

• circ- (from Latin circus: ring, circle)
• -us (Latin noun ending)