Word.ws English Dictionary

circuitous

UK/sɜːˈkjuːɪtəs//sɚˈkjuːətəs/

circuitous adjective: not direct or to the point.

circuitous: top view of cars on road surrounded by trees
Photo by Deva Darshan on Unsplash

Adjective

circuitous (comparative more circuitous, superlative most circuitous)

  1. Not direct or to the point.
  2. Being a long and winding route.
    • I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    • The train service on this circuitous route to the City was withdrawn during the 1914-1918 war, and never restored. The track between Addison Road and Ravenscourt Park was removed, and the site is now occupied by blocks of flats.1947 May and June, “Richmond-Ludgate Hill Train, London & South Western Railway, at Addison Road Station About 75 Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page unnumbered (frontispiece)
    Synonyms:
    roundabout, tortuous

circuitous meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

circuitous in Tamil

சுற்று, சுற்று வளைவான

circuitous in Urdu

غیرمستقیم, پھیر دار

circuitous in Bengali

আঁকাবাঁকা, পরোক্ষ

circuitous in Malayalam

വളഞ്ഞ്, വക്രമായ, വളഞ്ഞുതിരിഞ്ഞ്
More languagesFewer languages
circuitous in Kannada
ಬಳಸು, ಕಷ್ಟಕರವಾದ, ಬಳಸುದಾರಿಯ, ಸುತ್ತುಬಳಸಿನ

Synonyms of circuitous

Forms of circuitous

comparativemore circuitous
superlativemost circuitous

Origin of circuitous

First attested in 1664. From Latin circuitōsus, from circuitus, from circumeō (“to go around”), from circum (“around”) + eō (“to go”). By surface analysis, circuit + -ous.

Words formed from circuitous

Questions about circuitous

What does circuitous mean?
Circuitous means not direct or to the point.
What is circuitous in Tamil?
Circuitous in Tamil is சுற்று, சுற்று வளைவான. See Circuitous meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is circuitous?
Circuitous is an adjective.
How do you pronounce circuitous?
Circuitous is pronounced /sɜːˈkjuːɪtəs/ (UK).

Words near circuitous in the dictionary

  1. circuitings
  2. circuition
  3. circuitions
  4. circuitor
  5. circuitors
  6. circuitous
  7. circuitously
  8. circuitousness
  9. circuitries
  10. circuitry
  11. circuits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circuitous (page history and authors); circuitous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); circuitous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); circuitous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); circuitous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); circuitous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-circuitous.ogg.

Cite this entry: “circuitous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/circuitous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.