Library / English Dictionary

CIRCULATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to become widely known

Example:

broadcast the news

Synonyms:

broadcast; circularise; circularize; circulate; diffuse; disperse; disseminate; distribute; pass around; propagate; spread

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "circulate" is one way to...):

air; bare; publicise; publicize (make public)

Cause:

circulate; go around; spread (become widely known and passed on)

Verb group:

circulate; go around; spread (become widely known and passed on)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circulate"):

podcast (distribute (multimedia files) over the internet for playback on a mobile device or a personal computer)

sow (introduce into an environment)

generalise; generalize; popularise; popularize; vulgarise; vulgarize (cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use)

carry; run (include as the content; broadcast or publicize)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

circulation (the spread or transmission of something (as news or money) to a wider group or area)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become widely known and passed on

Example:

the story went around in the office

Synonyms:

circulate; go around; spread

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "circulate" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Verb group:

broadcast; circularise; circularize; circulate; diffuse; disperse; disseminate; distribute; pass around; propagate; spread (cause to become widely known)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Move around freely from person to person or from place to place

Example:

She circulates among royalty

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "circulate" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circulate"):

drift (move in an unhurried fashion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Move through a space, circuit or system, returning to the starting point

Example:

The air here does not circulate

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "circulate" is one way to...):

course; feed; flow; run (move along, of liquids)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circulate"):

ventilate (circulate through and freshen)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

circulation (movement through a circuit; especially the movement of blood through the heart and blood vessels)

circulative (of or relating to circulation)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Cause to move in a circuit or system

Example:

The fan circulates the air in the room

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "circulate" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Cause:

circulate (move through a space, circuit or system, returning to the starting point)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circulate"):

convect (circulate hot air by convection)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

circulation (free movement or passage (as of cytoplasm within a cell or sap through a plant))

circulation (movement through a circuit; especially the movement of blood through the heart and blood vessels)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Cause to be distributed

Example:

This letter is being circulated among the faculty

Synonyms:

circulate; distribute; pass around; pass on

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "circulate" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circulate"):

send around (forward to others)

utter (put into circulation)

scatter; spread; spread out (strew or distribute over an area)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

circular (an advertisement (usually printed on a page or in a leaflet) intended for wide distribution)

circulation (the spread or transmission of something (as news or money) to a wider group or area)

circulation (the dissemination of copies of periodicals (as newspapers or magazines))

circulation (number of copies of a newspaper or magazine that are sold)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It is associated with the presence of circulating autoantibodies against the gut epithelial cells.

(Autoimmune enteropathy, NCI Thesaurus)

Upon administration, anti-CD45 monoclonal antibody binds to leukocyte surface-expressed CD45, which may result in the transient depletion of circulating leukocytes including circulating T cell depletion (TCD).

(anti-CD45 monoclonal antibody, NCI Thesaurus)

When you look at the mid-ocean ridge and think about the water that's circulating through it, it looks as though a lot of the ocean is moving through this cold environment.

(Microbes in underground aquifers beneath deep-sea Mid-Atlantic Ridge 'chow down' on carbon, National Science Foundation)

Prior research has suggested that it takes a very long time for water in the Pacific Ocean to circulate down to its lowest depths.

(Bottom of Pacific Found to Be Getting Colder, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Measurement of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood can be used to detect disease recurrence in patients with a curable form of cancer known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

(Circulating tumor DNA in blood can predict recurrence of the most common type of lymphoma, NIH)

Some of it drifts into large systems of circulating ocean currents, known as gyres.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

Dr. Howard Federoff of Georgetown University Medical Center and his colleagues decided to search for biomarkers of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in circulating blood.

(Study Points to Possible Blood Test For Memory Decline, Alzheimer’s, NIH)

The tumor cells that the magnetic wire picks up are known as circulating tumor cells.

(Magnetic Wires May Soon Be Used in Your Veins to Detect Cancer Earlier, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

B cell and T cell lymphocytes interact with a variety of cells as part of their immune function, circulating and homing in on specific stimuli in tissues like inflammatory signals.

(Adhesion Molecules on Lymphocyte Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

These circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can take root elsewhere, causing the spread of the cancer to other organs, a process called metastasis.

(Isolated cancer cells may lead to personalized treatments, NIH)