English

Alternative forms

• circumstaunce

Noun

circumstance ‎(plural circumstances)

1. That which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things.
   • Washington Irving

     The circumstances are well known in the country where they happened.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace:

     “The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas. […]”

2. An event; a fact; a particular incident.
   • Addison

     The sculptor had in his thoughts the conqoeror weeping for new worlds, or the like circumstances in history.

   • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, p. 20:

     Then another circumstance happened, which made a lasting impression on my memory, though I was but a small child.

3. Circumlocution; detail.
   • Shakespeare

     So without more circumstance at all / I hold it fit that we shake hands and part.

4. Condition in regard to worldly estate; state of property; situation; surroundings.
   • Addison

     When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

Translations

Derived terms

Verb

circumstance ‎(third-person singular simple present circumstances, present participle circumstancing, simple past and past participle circumstanced)

1. To place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources.
   • 1858, Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne, Chapter 8:

     Tidings had in some shape reached is ears that his father was not comfortably circumstanced as regarded money.

   • 1949, Diderot studies, volume 11, page 170:

     While also taxing Ferrein with the same motives, Diderot's account of his doings is much more circumstanced than La Mettrie's, and also much more amusing, thanks to the interpolation of the «bijoux» motif.