circulate

verb

SaySUR-kyuu-layt/ˈsɚ.kjʊˌleɪt/UK/ˈsɜː.kjʊˌleɪt/

Formscirculates, circulating, circulated

6 meanings of circulate

1
verbtransitive
To spread information or items widely so that they reach many people.
Activists circulate petitions to gather support for the new law.
Management circulated a memo to every department.
Similardistribute, disseminate, spread, send
Note
Money and gossip are the classic objects here, and together they show the range: the verb carries coins and banknotes as readily as rumors, memos and petitions. It always takes an object, since someone circulates something. That separates it from the "becoming known" meaning, where the news travels by itself. Rumors circulate, but a spokesperson circulates a statement.
2
verbintransitive
To move in circles or flow through a closed path, returning to where it began.
Coolant circulates through the engine to prevent overheating.
Hot water pipes let heat circulate evenly across the floor.
Similarflow, cycle, move
Oppositestagnate
Note
The literal sense, and the one closest to the word's root: Late Latin circulātus, from circulus, "a circle." Fluids are its natural subjects, such as coolant, warm air and water in pipes. It takes no object, because here things circulate on their own. When something else does the moving, the verb shifts to its causative partner.
3
verbintransitive
To become known among many people, spreading from one to the next.
Reports of the discovery circulated through scientific communities within days.
Rumors tend to circulate whenever management stays silent.
Similarspread, travel
4
verbtransitive
To make a person or thing move in circles or pass through a closed path.
The heart circulates blood throughout the body.
Engineers designed the system to circulate coolant past every component.
Similarpump, cycle, move
5
verbintransitive
To move from one person to another, as a guest or host does at a gathering.
Good hosts circulate throughout the evening so no guest feels ignored.
He circulated through the crowd, shaking hands as he went.
Similarmingle, mix, socialize
6
verbintransitive
Of a decimal: to have a sequence of digits that repeats endlessly.
The decimal for two-sevenths circulates, repeating the block 285714 without end.
Fractions like one-sixth produce decimals that circulate after the first digit.
Similarrecur, repeat
Oppositeterminate
Note
Arithmetic takes the circle image literally: the digits come back round and start again. A circulating decimal has a fixed block that recurs forever, as 285714 does for two-sevenths. Every fraction whose denominator, in lowest terms, has a prime factor other than 2 or 5 behaves this way. Fractions whose denominators have only those factors terminate instead.

Practice

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Origin

Borrowed from Late Latin circulātus, from circulō ("to make circular, encircle"), a later form of circulor ("to form a circle of men around oneself"), from circulus ("a circle").