circumnavigate

UK/ˌsə.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/US/ˌsɝ.kəmˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/

verbC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,638 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: circumnavigated, circumnavigating, circumnavigates

To circumnavigate is to sail or fly all the way round something. Circumnavigate the globe, the first to circumnavigate it, circumnavigate the island.

The first circumnavigation was Magellan's expedition, completed in 1522 by the eighteen survivors of two hundred and seventy men, without Magellan, who died on the way. Single-handed sailors now do it in under fifty days.

Definitions of circumnavigate

1verbcircumnavigateTo sail or fly all the way round something.C2
“They took two years to circumnavigate the globe in a small wooden boat.”

circumnavigate is a sailing.

Where it comes from

Latin circumnavigare is circum, around, plus navigare, to sail.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eǵ-
Latin
circumnāvigātus
English, today
circumnavigate

Built from

circumnāvigō · Latin — sail round something, circumnavigate
circum · Latin — about, around
nāvigō · Latin — sail, navigate
nāvis · Latin — ship

Latin circumnāvigātus, perfect passive participle of circumnāvigō (“sail round something, circumnavigate”), from circum (“about, around”) + nāvigō (“sail, navigate”), from nāvis (“ship”) + agō (“do”). by surface analysis, circum- + navigate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

circumnavigate in the wild

Since the rise of commercial aviation in the mid 20th century, circumnavigating Earth is straightforward, usually taking days instead of years.
Circumnavigation
Today, the challenge of circumnavigating Earth has shifted towards human and technological endurance, speed, and less conventional methods.
Circumnavigation
Olivier van Noort was a Dutch merchant captain and the first Dutchman to circumnavigate the world.
Olivier van Noort
Based on this, some historians have speculated that he could have been the first person to circumnavigate the globe, achieving this before the survivors who completed Magellan's expedition.
Enrique of Malacca
A round-the-world ticket (also known as round-the-world fare or RTW ticket) is a product that enables a traveller to circumnavigate the world on a single itinerary.
Round-the-world ticket

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the nāvis family

navy

circumnavigate — used about once every 27,725 pages · #13,638 · point at the bar for the others

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