Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A condition or fact attending an event and having some bearing on it; a determining or modifying factor.
  • noun The sum of determining factors beyond willful control.
  • noun Financial status or means.
  • noun Formal display; ceremony.
  • noun A particular incident or occurrence.
  • transitive verb To place in particular circumstances or conditions; situate.
  • idiom (under no circumstances) In no case; never.
  • idiom (under/in) Given these conditions; such being the case.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fact related to another fact and modifying or throwing light upon its meaning, significance, importance, etc., without affecting its essential nature; something attending, appendant, or relative; something incidental; an accidental or unessential accompaniment; especially, some fact which gives rise to a certain presumption or tends to afford evidence.
  • noun A particular or detail; a matter of small consequence: as, that is a mere circumstance compared to what followed.
  • noun Collectively, detail; minuteness; specification of particulars.
  • noun A ceremonious accompaniment; a formality required by law or custom; more specifically, in a concrete sense, adjuncts of pomp and ceremony; ceremonies; display.
  • noun The surroundings, rarely of a thing, generally of a person; existing condition or state of things; facts external to a person considered as helping or, more especially, as hindering his designs, or as inducing him to act in a certain way; predicament, unforeseen or unprovided for; a person's worldly estate, or condition of wealth or poverty; fortune; means: generally in the plural.
  • noun Event; occurrence; incident.
  • To place in a particular situation or condition with regard to attending facts or incidents: only in the past participle: as, he was so circumstanced that he could not accept.
  • To control or guide by circumstances: only in the following passage.
  • To furnish or dress out with incidents and details; add circumstances to.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things.
  • noun An event; a fact; a particular incident.
  • noun obsolete Circumlocution; detail.
  • noun Condition in regard to worldly estate; state of property; situation; surroundings.
  • noun [Colloq.] of no account.
  • noun taking all things into consideration.
  • transitive verb To place in a particular situation; to supply relative incidents.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun That which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things.
  • noun An event; a fact; a particular incident.
  • noun Circumlocution; detail.
  • noun Condition in regard to worldly estate; state of property; situation; surroundings.
  • verb To place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun information that should be kept in mind when making a decision
  • noun the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event
  • noun a condition that accompanies or influences some event or activity
  • noun formal ceremony about important occasions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French circonstance, from Latin circumstantia, from circumstāns, circumstant-, present participle of circumstāre, to stand around : circum-, circum- + stāre, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • The Enlightenment ideal appropriate to this circumstance is the "pursuit of happiness" which has limited the government's responsibility for my own happiness since 1776.

    Layard and Happiness, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Another circumstance is the "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell, sometimes not shelved by bookstores or libraries in their SF sections; of course, the book is about first contact with aliens and travel to an alien planet, it might be Spec.

    Thumbing Their Noses at Science Fiction 2007

  • And when so detected they betrayed no recognition of their masters, for no soldier can recognize his dog — so heinous a circumstance is attempted stowaway.

    The Red Game of War 1914

  • The last tie, the last constraint that bound him to home and a steady, righteous life would be broken; he would go all adrift, be tossed hither and thither on every wave of circumstance -- what he called circumstance -- till Heaven only knew what a total wreck he might speedily become, or in what forlorn and far off seas his ruined life might go down.

    Mistress and Maid. A Household Story. 1864

  • The usual course should anyone negotiate in this kind of circumstance is to conduct any correspondence/phone calls/etc “without prejudice”.

    Scripting News for 4/9/2007 « Scripting News Annex 2007

  • No iron-clad fundraising rules exist, because each circumstance is different, says Raman Chadha, executive director of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University in Chicago.

    Big decision: How do you fund your new business? 2009

  • I realize that these memos were considered to be just the neo-con musings of people like Mr. Yoo and that every administration has drawn up contingency plans for every circumstance from the tragic -- such as nuclear attacks on Washington, D.C. -- to the farcical -- such as invading Canada.

    Those Secret Memos 2009

  • In fact, here are the first seven definitions of circumstance from the OED that are not considered obsolete:

    2010 March « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • Her heart is broken, but then a change in circumstance forces Naoki and Kotoko to be together every day …!?

    Happy text 2009

  • Her heart is broken, but then a change in circumstance forces Naoki and Kotoko to be together every day …!?

    06 « August « 2009 « The Manga Curmudgeon 2009

Comments

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  • "Hello, circumstances. Let me introduce myself:

    you are me."

    "Oh -- Hi! Glad to meet you."

    --Jan Cox

    June 30, 2007