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say it: SUR-kuhl
circle is a noun and verb meaning "ellipse in which the two axes are of equal length; a plane curve generated by one point moving at a constant distance from a fixed point". It is pronounced /ˈsɝkəl/ — SUR-kuhl. It carries 11 recorded senses.
an unofficial association of people or groups
“the smart set goes there”
“they were an angry lot”
movement once around a course
“he drove an extra lap just for insurance”
a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island
“the accident blocked all traffic at the rotary”
street names for flunitrazepan
a curved section or tier of seats in a hall or theater or opera house; usually the first tier above the orchestra
“they had excellent seats in the dress circle”
any circular or rotating mechanism
“the machine punched out metal circles”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for circle come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.