Periphery

How to spell periphery

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce periphery

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does periphery mean?

1. nounThe outer edge, boundary, or marginal area of something, as opposed to its centre.

Periphery in a sentence

• The new warehouses were built on the periphery of the city.

• A faint light flickered at the periphery of her vision.

Where does periphery come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word reaches English from Greek through Latin. The Greek noun periphereia meant 'the line going round' or 'circumference', and it was built from peri, meaning 'around', joined to the verb pherein, meaning 'to carry' or 'to bear'; so the literal idea was a line carried around a centre. Latin adopted it as peripheria, keeping the geometric sense of the outer edge of a circle, and English took it up in the early 1400s, at first in mathematical and astronomical writing. Over time the meaning broadened from the strict edge of a circle to any outer boundary or marginal area, including figurative edges such as the fringe of a group or the periphery of one's attention. The same peri- prefix surfaces in 'perimeter' and 'periscope', while pherein lies behind words like 'metaphor', something carried across. The spelling trap is that single 'r' followed by the 'pher' spelling of the /f/ sound, an echo of its Greek phi.

How the word is built

• peri- (around)
• -pher- (from Greek pherein: to carry, to bear)
• -y (noun suffix)