Other forms: circles, circling, circled
A circle is a perfectly round shape — every point on it the same distance from the centre. A circle of chairs, draw a circle, the circle of the moon.
It also means a group of people connected to each other: a circle of friends, literary circles, in certain circles. That sense is always about who is inside and who is not. The verb means to move round something — the plane circled for twenty minutes — or to draw a ring around it: circle the correct answer. Note that a circle is flat and a sphere is solid, and that circling and encircling differ: you circle round something, you encircle it by surrounding it.
1nouncircleA perfectly round flat shape.
“The children sat in a circle on the floor.”
2noungroupA group of people connected to each other.
“She has a small circle of close friends.”
3verbmoveTo move in a circle round something.
“A buzzard circled above the field.”
4verbdrawTo draw a ring around something.
“Circle the answer you think is right.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
circle is a round shape, or a group.
Latin circulus is the small form of circus, a ring — the same word as the Roman circus, which was a ring for racing. Circle, circus, circuit and circa are all the same round idea, and search comes from the same root by way of going round looking for something.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker- (turn)
Old French
cercle
Middle English
circle
English, today
circle
From Middle English circle, from Old French cercle. From Middle English circle, cercle, from Old French cercle and Latin circulus, diminutive of Latin circus (“circle, circus”), from Ancient Greek κίρκος (“circle, ring”), related to Old English hring (“ring”). Compare also Old English ċircul (“circle, zodiac”), which came from the same Latin source. by surface analysis, circ(us) + -(u)le.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA