Okruh

Okruh is a Czech noun with several related meanings. In everyday language it denotes a circle, a sphere, or more broadly an area or field of activity or interest. It can refer to a social circle, a professional domain, or the set of people connected to a topic or task, for example v okruhu přátel (within a circle of friends) or okruh zájmů (circle of interests).

In technical usage, okruh designates a closed conducting path for electric current, i.e., an electrical circuit: elektrický okruh. It is common in education and engineering to discuss components within an okruh or to describe a short circuit as zkrátit okruh.

In sports, especially motorsport, okruh means a race track or circuit. A competition is run on a given okruh, and a single lap is typically referred to as kolo, while the track itself is the okruh (for example Monaco okruh).

Okruh thus covers both figurative and technical meanings, with its precise sense inferred from context. Related terms include kruh, used for the mathematical circle, and obvod, which denotes a circumference.