# circulation

Pronunciation: say "sur-kyoo-LAY-shuhn" US /ˌsɝkjʊˈleɪʃən/, UK /ˌsɜː(ɹ).kjʊˈleɪ.ʃən/

## Noun

1. The movement of blood through the heart and vessels, bringing it into close contact with the body's cells and tissues; loosely, the circulatory system itself.
   - Simple: The way blood moves around the body, reaching all the cells and tissues.
   - _The doctor checked her circulation by feeling for a pulse in her foot._
   - _Sitting still for long flights can slow circulation to the extremities._
2. The passing of something from place to place or person to person; free diffusion or transmission.
   - Simple: The way something moves from place to place or person to person.
   - _Open windows improve the circulation of air throughout the building._
   - _The circulation of new ideas across borders accelerated during the Enlightenment._
3. The coins, notes, and other money currently passing as currency among the public.
   - Simple: The coins and paper money that people are using to buy and sell things.
   - _The mint quietly withdrew worn and damaged coins from circulation._
   - _Counterfeit bills occasionally slip into general circulation before they are detected._
4. The extent to which something is distributed or spread, or a measure of that spread, as with the number of copies a publication reaches.
   - Simple: How widely something is spread, or how many people it reaches.
   - _The daily paper's circulation reached two million copies at its peak._
   - _Editors worried about the steady decline in circulation over the past decade._
5. The act of moving in a circle, or along a path that returns the moving body to where its motion began.
   - Simple: Movement around in a circle, ending up back where it started.
   - _The circulation of the planets along their orbits repeats with great regularity._
   - _Each full circulation of the wheel returned the marked spoke to the top._
6. The movement of sap through the vessels and tissues of a plant.
   - Simple: The movement of sap through the parts of a plant.
   - _In spring, the rising circulation of sap signals the start of new growth._
   - _The disease blocks circulation within the stem, causing the leaves to wilt._

## Origin

From Middle English circulacioun, from Latin circulatio. It can also be analysed as circulate combined with the suffix -ion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/circulation (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).