Word.ws English Dictionary

circumvallatory

circumvallatory adjective: having the nature of a circumvallation; consisting of a rampart or trench that entirely encircles the position being defended.

Adjective

circumvallatory (not comparable)

  1. (rare) Having the nature of a circumvallation; consisting of a rampart or trench that entirely encircles the position being defended.
    • LEXINGTON, in Kentucky, stands partly on the site of an ancient town, which was of great extent and magnificence, as is amply evinced by the wide range of its circumvallatory works, and the quantity of ground it once occupied.1834, Josiah Priest, American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West, page 110
    • Here a broad, deep, circumvallatory trench, hewn from the solid rock, was defended by a wall of great strength erected upon its inner edge.1852 [1836], Edgar Allan Poe, “A Tale of Jerusalem”, in James Albert Harrison, editor, The works of the late Edgar Allan Poe, II: Poems and Miscellanies, New York: J. S. Redfield, page 216

Origin of circumvallatory

From circumvallation + -ory.

Questions about circumvallatory

What does circumvallatory mean?
Circumvallatory means having the nature of a circumvallation; consisting of a rampart or trench that entirely encircles the position being defended.
What part of speech is circumvallatory?
Circumvallatory is an adjective.

Words near circumvallatory in the dictionary

  1. circumvallated
  2. circumvallates
  3. circumvallating
  4. circumvallation
  5. circumvallations
  6. circumvallatory
  7. circumvascular
  8. circumvection
  9. circumvections
  10. circumvene
  11. circumvent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circumvallatory (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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