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circumscribe

[sur-kuhm-skrahyb, sur-kuhm-skrahyb] / ˈsɜr kəmˌskraɪb, ˌsɜr kəmˈskraɪb /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Perhaps anyone could guess as much, but what a layman might never know without Stanford’s book is that our busy roads severely circumscribe the territory cougars can roam, leading to isolation and inbreeding.

From Los Angeles Times May 20, 2024

The charter provision does not appear to circumscribe that investigative authority for the department’s highest-ranking officer, the police chief.

From Seattle Times Jun. 13, 2023

The measures circumscribe the power of local officials to impose lockdowns and ensure they are lifted quickly.

From New York Times Dec. 7, 2022

Howlers typically start at dusk and end hours later, following desolate fire roads that circumscribe an area known to contain wolves.

From Washington Post Jul. 28, 2021

About a given circle to circumscribe a triangle equiangular to a given triangle.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 6 "Geodesy" to "Geometry" by Various

It’s one thing to confer maximalist, seemingly boundless authority on the executive branch and on the president that, by definition, circumscribes the judicial role.

From Slate Dec. 19, 2025

But Wednesday’s ruling seriously circumscribes the instances where that can actually happen, justices said.

From Washington Times Jun. 8, 2022

Eight years after Diane Vidalakis’ delivery at Huntington, the injury she says she sustained under Sutton’s care circumscribes her life.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 9, 2018

In addition to coming on softly, Lendl circumscribes his exposure to Murray.

From New York Times Jun. 20, 2012

We pulled onto 1-465, the beltway that circumscribes Indianapolis.

From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

Yet the pardon power is circumscribed: It applies only to criminal “offenses,” excluding impeachments.

From Slate May 26, 2026

As recently as the noncooperation movement in 1920-22, women played a far more circumscribed role.

From BBC Nov. 29, 2025

Early Renaissance sculptors went to school on works like this, learning from them how to tell a complex story on a flat surface within a circumscribed area.

From The Wall Street Journal Oct. 22, 2025

In a place long circumscribed by disaster, Bass is facing a catastrophe with financial and logistical burdens that will likely dwarf the combined fallout from the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the 1992 civil unrest.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 13, 2025

Dedd looks at her watch as a polite reminder to the woman that the visit is circumscribed.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

That precedent set a “great level of deference” as the standard of review for deployments that have since mushroomed across the country, circumscribing debate even in courts where it is not legally binding.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 15, 2025

When, however, I search for “War on Terror, civilians killed” without even circumscribing the time range, I get about 850,000 results.

From Salon Mar. 1, 2024

"But that does not mean that Greece is to blame, it is just circumscribing specific areas of responsibility," he added.

From Reuters Jun. 15, 2023

The Constitution structures our fundamental political institutions to provide the energy and flexibility to secure rights while circumscribing the exercise of political power to prevent government from violating rights.

From Washington Post Jul. 16, 2020

“With every passing day, Watergate was circumscribing our freedom of action,” Kissinger, the one person unscathed by scandal, later said.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin




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