Word.ws English Dictionary

circumnavigate

UK/ˌsə.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt//ˌsɝ.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/

circumnavigate verb: to travel completely around somewhere or something (especially the Globe), especially by sail.

Verb

circumnavigate (third-person singular simple present circumnavigates, present participle circumnavigating, simple past and past participle circumnavigated)

  1. (transitive) To travel completely around somewhere or something (especially the Globe), especially by sail.
    • We circumnavigated the Mediterranean.
    • On horses they circumnavigated the fields, comparing the progress of the harvest on the two halves.2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet, published 2017, page 50
    Synonyms:
    compass, environ
  2. (transitive) To circumvent or bypass.
    • Rebel of the tournament: Saudi Arabia’s Malek Al Hawsawi, who circumnavigated Fifa’s ban on jewellery by keeping his ring in his mouth.2006 July 9, “Magic month of memories”, in Times of London
    Synonyms:
    go around
  3. (intransitive) To sail around the world.
    • Patrick Childress, who solo circumnavigated on a Catalina 27 in 1982, stresses the value of eggs, which will keep at least six weeks if previously unrefrigerated and oiled with vegetable shortening.1992, Richard Henderson, Singlehanded Sailing, →ISBN, page 225
    • Jack and Lura Francis, both fairly tall, circumnavigated on a Westsail 32.1997, Diana Jessie, The Cruising Woman's Advisor, →ISBN, page 30

circumnavigate meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

circumnavigate in Tamil

கப்பலில் சுற்றுப் பயணம் செய், கடலில் உலகு சுற்றிச் செல், சுற்றிக் கப்பலோட்டு

circumnavigate in Malayalam

ചുറ്റികപ്പലോടിക്കുക, കപ്പൽമാർഗ്ഗം പ്രദക്ഷിണം ചെയ്യുക

Examples of circumnavigate in a sentence

  • If she completes her trip, Rutherford will also claim the record for the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo in a microlight aircraft.2021 August 18, Rebecca Cairns, “This teenage aviator hopes to be the youngest woman to fly solo around the world”, in CNN, archived from...
  • Chay Blyth was the first when he circumnavigated in British Steel in 292 days in 1970 in a voyage that some predicted would end in certain death.2004 March 10, Edward Gorman, “Van den Heede rewarded for perseverance”, in Times of London:

All 12 example sentences with circumnavigate

Synonyms of circumnavigate

Forms of circumnavigate

third-person singular presentcircumnavigates
present participlecircumnavigating
past participlecircumnavigated
pastcircumnavigated

Past tense of circumnavigate: circumnavigated

Origin of circumnavigate

Borrowed from Latin circumnāvigātus, perfect passive participle of circumnāvigō (“sail round something, circumnavigate”), from circum (“about, around”) + nāvigō (“sail, navigate”), from nāvis (“ship”) + agō (“do”). By surface analysis, circum- + navigate.

Words formed from circumnavigate

Questions about circumnavigate

What does circumnavigate mean?
Circumnavigate means to travel completely around somewhere or something (especially the Globe), especially by sail.
What is circumnavigate in Tamil?
Circumnavigate in Tamil is கப்பலில் சுற்றுப் பயணம் செய், கடலில் உலகு சுற்றிச் செல், சுற்றிக் கப்பலோட்டு. See Circumnavigate meaning in Tamil.
How do you use circumnavigate in a sentence?
If she completes her trip, Rutherford will also claim the record for the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo in a microlight aircraft.
What part of speech is circumnavigate?
Circumnavigate is a verb.
How do you pronounce circumnavigate?
Circumnavigate is pronounced /ˌsə.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of circumnavigate?
The past tense of circumnavigate is circumnavigated.

Words near circumnavigate in the dictionary

  1. circumnaphthalene
  2. circumnarial
  3. circumnasal
  4. circumnatal
  5. circumnavigable
  6. circumnavigate
  7. circumnavigated
  8. circumnavigates
  9. circumnavigating
  10. circumnavigation
  11. circumnavigational

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circumnavigate (page history and authors); circumnavigate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); circumnavigate (Malayalam 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.

Last updated:

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

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