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encircled

verb

past tense of encircle
1
as in circled
to travel completely around communication satellites encircling the earth

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in surrounded
to form a circle around immediately after announcing their engagement, the couple was encircled by their applauding friends

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of encircled The soccer ball, muddy from outside, is encircled in one arm. — Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2026 Instead of gold watches, silver handcuffs encircled their wrists. — Jonny Hallam, CNN Money, 27 Aug. 2026 The pair left their vehicle to find assistance, traversing salt flats toward Badwater Road, a two-lane highway encircled by mountains. — Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2026 In 1951, Western Auto bought the building and invested more $300,000 in renovations and additions, including a new 30-ton, 70-by-73-foot sign displaying its name in massive red letters encircled by an arrow. — Rashad Alexander august 17, Kansas City Star, 17 Aug. 2026 The pendant, which is encircled by diamonds, also includes a heart between the initials. — Juliana Ukiomogbe, InStyle, 3 Aug. 2026 Lining the outer cell membrane, at the base of the cilia, were simple structures, each encircled by a single membrane. — Marlowe Starling, Quanta Magazine, 27 July 2026 The area along the Cumberland River where more than 100 people once lived is now encircled by fences and no-trespassing signs. — Marissa J. Lang, NPR, 21 July 2026 The youngest Lestat trips over reciting a passage about being encircled by God’s love. — Sabrina Reed, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for encircled
  1. circled
  2. surrounded
  3. traversed
  4. orbited
Verb
  • For the Connington family, it has been circled for much longer.
    — Taylor Eldridge, Kansas City Star, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Survivors wheeled and circled above the wreckage for days, and injured birds straggling ashore were killed by Angelenos looking for a free meal.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of circled
Verb
  • Lenin and Trotsky believed that their Bolshevik Revolution would succeed only when the Soviet Union was surrounded by other Communist states.
    — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Leary said that once the riders were surrounded on the bridge, police took them into custody without incident.
    — Assistant Editor, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of surrounded
Verb
  • To find their bodies, that afternoon Comella and other firemen traversed the steep, smoldering steel mountain using a series of ladders, a process not unlike the way trekkers negotiate the treacherous Khumbu ice fall at the base of Mount Everest.
    — Peter Wilkinson, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2026
  • As the airplane air-conditioning worked overtime in the desert heat, the grooms traversed the tarmac numerous times to shuttle water and supplies to the horses.
    — Danielle Rossingh, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of traversed
Verb
  • The $496 million GRAIL probes orbited the moon in an extremely low orbit, coming within 30 miles (50 km) of the lunar surface at their closest approach.
    — Tariq Malik, Space.com, 10 Sep. 2026
  • In fact, just one spacecraft, NASA’s MESSENGER, has ever orbited the planet.
    — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of orbited

Browse Nearby Words

encircle
encircled
encirclement
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Cite this Entry

“Encircled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/encircled. Accessed 20 Sep. 2026.

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