circular

Dictionary: cir·cu·lar (sûr'kyə-lər) pronunciation

adj.

Of or relating to a circle.
1. Shaped like or nearly like a circle; round.
2. Moving in or forming a circle.
Circuitous; roundabout: took a circular route to the office.
Using a premise to prove a conclusion that in turn is used to prove the premise: a circular argument.
Defining one word in terms of another that is itself defined in terms of the first word.
Addressed or distributed to a large number of persons.

A printed advertisement, directive, or notice intended for mass distribution.

[Middle English circuler, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin circulāris, from circulus, circle. See circle.]

circularity cir'cu·lar'i·ty (-lăr'ĭ-tē) n.
circularly cir'cu·lar·ly adv.

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Marketing Dictionary: circular

Advertisement printed on a single sheet of paper and circulated either by Third class mail or by hand; also called circ, flier. The advertisement may be printed in one or more colors, and the paper may be of any color stock. Usually a circular is folded so that the edges are parallel and it can fit in an envelope. Circulars are used as package inserts, as retail over-the-counter handouts, and in directmail packages. They work best if they are relatively large with colorful illustrations and exciting headlines. They are often used by business salespeople to provide prospective customers with technical information.

Thesaurus: circular

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adjective

Having the shape of a curve everywhere equidistant from a fixed point: annular, globoid, globular, round, spheric, spherical. See geometry.
Not taking a direct or straight line or course: anfractuous, circuitous, devious, indirect, oblique, roundabout, tortuous. See straight/bent.

Measures and Units: circular

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area As applied to linear units of measure, a terminology for expressing the area of a circular section purely as the square of its diameter, hence avoiding incorporation of the irrational factor pi, i.e. ignoring the multiplier ¹/_4π. Hence:

circular inch	= 1/4π sq.in = 0.785 398 2~ in² (506.7075~ mm²),
circular mil	= 1/4π sq.mil = 0.785 398 2~ sq.mil
	= 0.785 398 2~ × 10^-6in² (506.7075~ μm²).
circular mm	= ¼ mm² = 0.785 398 2~ mm² (0.001 211 737~ in²).

Word Tutor: circular

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IN BRIEF: Having a round shape. Also: A letter or advertisement sent out to many people.

There was a large circular driveway in front of the huge house.

Wikipedia: Circular definition

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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

A circular definition is one that assumes a prior understanding of the term being defined. By using the term(s) being defined as a part of the definition, a circular definition provides no new or useful information; either the audience already knows the meaning of the term(s), or the definition is deficient in including the term(s) to be defined in the definition itself. If someone wants to know what a cellular phone is, telling them that it is a "phone that is cellular" will not be especially illuminating, nor is defining dialectical materialism as "materialism that is dialectical". For another example, we can define "oak" as a tree which has catkins and grows from an acorn, and then define "acorn" as the nut produced by an oak tree. To someone not knowing which trees are oaks, nor which nuts are acorns, the definition is fairly useless.

A circular definition occurred in an early definition of the kilogram.^{[dubious – discuss]} The kilogram was originally defined as the mass of one liter of water at standard pressure and the temperature at which it is densest (which is about 4 °C). The unit of pressure is the newton per square meter, where a newton is the force that accelerates one kilogram one meter per second squared. Thus the kilogram was defined in terms of itself. Since water is nearly incompressible, this circularity is of no consequence — with each iteration of the "circle," the resulting measure of a kilogram rapidly converges. Even so, to clear up any confusion, the kilogram was later defined as the mass of a certain piece of metal in Sèvres.

A circular definition also crept into the classic definition of death that was once "the permanent cessation of the flow of vital bodily fluids", which raised the question "what makes a fluid vital?"

A branch of mathematics called non-well-founded set theory allows for the construction of circular sets. Circular sets are good for modelling cycles and, despite the field's name, this area of mathematics is well founded. Computer science allows for procedures to be defined by using recursion. Such definitions are not circular as long as they terminate.

Examples of circular definitions

The 2007 Webster dictionary defines a "hill" and a "mountain" this way:

Hill - "1: a usually rounded natural elevation of land lower than a mountain" [1]

Mountain - "1a: a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill" [2]

This is a common example of a circular definition.

Also, Wiktionary defines "condescending" and "patronizing" this way:

condescending - "1. Assuming a tone of superiority, or a patronizing attitude." [3]

patronizing - "1. Offensively condescending." [4]

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	Using newton laws of motion explain why an object undergoing uniform circular motion has a force that is directed toward the centre of the circular path? Read answer...
	What is the relationship between volume of a right circular cylinder and the volume of a right circular cone of the same base and height? Read answer...

Help us answer these

	What is forces are acting on a car if it is moving with a uniform circular motion on a circular track?
	Wind causes particles of the water to move in a circular path how is that circular movement different in the different parts of the ocean?
	Wind causes particles of water to move in circular pathhow is that circular movement differnet in differnts parts of the ocean?

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Marketing Dictionary. Dictionary of Marketing Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Measures and Units. A Dictionary of Weights, Measures, and Units. Copyright © Donald Fenna 2002, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more
		Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Circular definition". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

circular saw	weekly circular
circular saws	Circular Saw Blade

circular

Examples of circular definitions

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