circumscribed

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.

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

From Slate • May 26, 2026

In between are Egyptian vultures, which use rocks to crack open ostrich eggs—genuine tool use—but when presented with rocks and chicken eggs simply cannot figure out what to do, suggesting a rather circumscribed “intelligence.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

As per the country's own observations, the fund had limited ability to do something about the loan, and was "circumscribed by procedural and technical formalities".

From BBC • May 14, 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

His conjecture that the orbits of the planets are circumscribed by the five platonic solids were no more supported by Tycho’s data than by Copernicus’.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan