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circumspect

UK/ˈsɜː.kəm.spɛkt/US/ˈsɝ.kəm.spɛkt/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,812 of 15,258neutral

Circumspect means careful to look at every risk before acting. Be circumspect, a circumspect reply, circumspect about it.

It is caution as a habit rather than a mood, and it is praise in diplomacy and business. The Latin means looking around, which is exactly the picture: somebody checking every direction before moving.

Definitions of circumspect

  1. 1adjectivecircumspectCareful to look at every risk before acting.C1

    “She was circumspect about the new investment and read every document before signing.”

circumspect is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin circumspectus comes from circumspicere, to look around, from circum plus specere, to look.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *speḱ-

  2. Latin

    circumspectō — look around

  3. English, today

    circumspect

From Latin circumspectō (“look around”). Compare periscope.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

circumspect in the wild

  • A circumspect scholar, he did not automatically assume similar tales indicated transmission, allowing for the possibility that similar tales arose independently.

    Thomas Keightley

  • Kate, believing the bartender committed the murders, accepts a provisional truce with a circumspect Angel.

    Lonely Hearts (Angel)

  • The media speculated that the United States would use the incident to justify the deployment of combat troops to South Vietnam; in the event, the U.S. remained circumspect.

    1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing

  • As a teacher, he deliberately chose a "cautious and circumspect" bearing, keeping his relationships with students strictly professional.

    Justin Holland

  • Eventually the Mexican standoff resolved itself, but from then on the Government was more circumspect in its dealings with the Port Adelaide Council.

    John Mitchell Sinclair

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.