circulate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin circulātus, perfect passive participle of Late Latin circulō (“to make circular, encircle”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), a later collateral form of circulor (“form a circle (of men) around oneself”), from circulus (“a circle”). See also Middle English circulat(e) (“(alchemy) changed by continuous distillation in a closed vessel”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sər'kyo͝o-lāt, IPA^(key): /ˈsɚ.kjʊˌleɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

circulate (third-person singular simple present circulates, present participle circulating, simple past and past participle circulated)

1. (intransitive) to move in circles or through a circuit
2. (transitive) to cause (a person or thing) to move in circles or through a circuit
3. to move from person to person, as at a party
   • 2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian‎:

     In both the 2005 and 2013 papal elections there were whispers circulating that back in 1976 Francis had failed to help the two priests in their hour of need.

4. to spread or disseminate

   to circulate money or gossip

5. to become widely known
6. (mathematics) Of decimals: to repeat.

Synonyms

• put about
• spread
• disseminate

Derived terms

• circulatable
• circulation
• circulative
• circulator
• cocirculate
• intercirculate
• miscirculate
• recirculate

Translations

to move in circles

Bulgarian: обикалям (bg) (obikaljam), кръжа (bg) (krǎža) Chinese: Mandarin: 环绕 (zh) Czech: obíhat Esperanto: cirkuladi Finnish: kiertää (fi), pyöriä (fi) French: circuler (fr) Galician: circular (gl) Hebrew: הסתובב (he) (histovév) Italian: circolare (it) Macedonian: кружи (kruži) Portuguese: circular (pt) Romanian: cercui (ro), a face cercuri Spanish: circular (es) Swedish: cirkulera (sv) Thai: หมุนเวียน (th) (mǔn-wiian)

to cause to move in circles

Finnish: kierittää, pyörittää (fi) Hebrew: סובב (he) (sovév)

to move from person to person

Finnish: kiertää (fi) Macedonian: кружи (kruži)

to spread or disseminate

Albanian: qarkulloj (sq) Bulgarian: разпространявам (bg) (razprostranjavam) Czech: šířit (cs) Finnish: levittää (fi) Hebrew: הפיץ (hefíts) Irish: scaip Ottoman Turkish: یایمق (yaymak) Thai: แพร่ (th) (prɛ̂ɛ), แพร่กระจาย Turkish: yaymak (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: (please verify) cirkuli (eo) French: (please verify) circuler (fr) Spanish: (please verify) circular (es)

Further reading

• “circulate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “circulate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

circulate

1. inflection of circulare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

circulate f pl

1. feminine plural of circulato

Latin

Verb

circulāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of circulō

Spanish

Verb

circulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of circular combined with te