roundabout
/ˈɹaʊndəˌbaʊt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northumbria/ˈɹuːndəˌbuːt/
roundabout adjective: indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.
Adjective
roundabout (comparative more roundabout, superlative most roundabout)
- Indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.
- [S]he fled, running like a deer, doubling and turning through alleys and back streets until by a very roundabout road she reached her own room.1896, Robert Barr, “chapter9”, in From Whose Bourne
- "Really, Bill, I think your best plan would be to go straight to father and tell him the whole thing.—You don't want him to hear about it in a roundabout way."1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter 17, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published 1921, →OCLC
- Encircling; enveloping; comprehensive.
- The third sort is of those who readily and sincerely follow reason, but for want of having that which one may call a large, sound, roundabout sense, have not a full view of all that relates to the question.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC
Noun
roundabout (plural roundabouts)
- A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.
- Synonyms:
- traffic circle, rotary, rotunda, island
- A horizontal wheel which rotates around a central axis when pushed and on which children ride, often found in parks as a children's play apparatus.
- A fairground carousel.
- Synonyms:
- merry-go-round
- A detour.
- A short, close-fitting coat or jacket worn by men or boys, especially in the 19th century.
- A round dance.
Verb
roundabout (third-person singular simple present roundabouts, present participle roundabouting, simple past and past participle roundabouted)
- To play on a roundabout (carousel)
- To travel round roundabouts
- To talk in a roundabout, indirect manner
roundabout meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
roundabout in Hindi
- roundabout, traffic circle
- चक्कर cakkar
roundabout in Tamil
- ரவுண்டாபவுட்டிங்
roundabout in Marathi
- गोल चक्कर, गोलभ्रमण
roundabout in Urdu
- road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island
- چَورَن٘گی cauraṅgī, چوک ćok, چوراہا ćorāhā, دوراہا dorāhā
More languagesFewer languages
- roundabout in Bengali
- বৃত্তাকার ঘোরাঘুরি, রাউন্ডবাউট
- roundabout in Telugu
- రౌండ్అబౌట్, రౌండ్ అబౌట్, రౌండ్ఎబౌట్
- roundabout in Malayalam
- വളവുള്ള, വക്രഗതിയായ, വളഞ്ഞുതിരിഞ്ഞ, ചൊവ്വല്ലാത്ത
- roundabout in Kannada
- ಸುತ್ತುಮಾರ್ಗದ, ಬಳಸುದಾರಿಯ, ನೇರವಲ್ಲದ, ಬಳಸುಮಾತಿನ
- roundabout in Gujarati
- ચક્કર cakkar
- roundabout in Odia
- ଗୋଲ ଚକ୍କର, ରାଉଣ୍ଡବାଉଟ୍
- roundabout in Nepali
- राउन्डअबाउट, गोल चक्कर, राउन्डअ्याबाउट
- roundabout in Tagalog
- rotonda
- roundabout in Arabic
- دَوَّار dawwār
- roundabout in Malay
- bulatan, bundaran
- roundabout in Indonesian
- bundaran
- roundabout in Persian
- فلکه falake
- roundabout in Vietnamese
- vòng xuyến, bùng binh
Examples of roundabout in a sentence
- Rather flew to the area in a roundabout fashion, first landing in Bahrain, from there flying to Islamabad and then heading to Kabul by land.2001 December 3, Jim Rutenberg, “Rather Reports Another War”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Apr 2014:
- Descartes is compelled to fall back upon a curious roundabout argument to prove that there is a world.2011, 50 Classic Philosophy Books, Golgotha Press, →ISBN:
Synonyms of roundabout
Forms of roundabout
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more roundabout |
| superlative | most roundabout |
| Noun | |
| plural | roundabouts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | roundabouts |
| present participle | roundabouting |
| past participle | roundabouted |
| past | roundabouted |
Origin of roundabout
From round + about [from early 20th c.].
Words formed from roundabout
Phrases with roundabout
Questions about roundabout
- What does roundabout mean?
- Roundabout means indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.
- What is roundabout in Hindi?
- Roundabout in Hindi is चक्कर (cakkar). See Roundabout meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use roundabout in a sentence?
- Rather flew to the area in a roundabout fashion, first landing in Bahrain, from there flying to Islamabad and then heading to Kabul by land.
- What part of speech is roundabout?
- Roundabout can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce roundabout?
- Roundabout is pronounced /ˈɹaʊndəˌbaʊt/.
Words near roundabout in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: roundabout (page history and authors); चक्कर (Hindi) (page history and authors); roundabout (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); roundabout (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); roundabout (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); roundabout (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); roundabout (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); roundabout (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ચક્કર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); roundabout (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); roundabout (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-roundabout.ogg, en-au-roundabout.ogg.
Cite this entry: “roundabout.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/roundabout. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.