circunscribe

Circumscribe is a verb with several related senses, primarily used in geometry and in figurative language. In geometry, to circumscribe means to draw around a figure in such a way that the outer boundary touches the figure at characteristic points. The most common geometric use is to describe a circle drawn around a polygon so that all the polygon’s vertices lie on the circle; that circle is called the circumcircle, and the polygon is said to be cyclic. Conversely, circumscribing a polygon about a circle means constructing a polygon that is tangent to the circle at one or more points, in which case the circle is inscribed in the polygon.

In a broader geometric context, the term also relates to the idea of delimiting a figure by a boundary, such as circumscribing a shape with a bounding shape or lines. The center of a circumcircle is the circumcenter, and the radius of that circle is the circumradius.

Beyond geometry, circumscribe can mean to restrict or define the scope of something within clear bounds. For example, a discussion may circumscribe a topic by explicitly limiting its boundaries, or a policy may circumscribe actions to a specified framework. This usage carries the sense of drawing limits or outlining geographic, conceptual, or procedural borders.

Etymology and history: circumscribe comes from the Latin circumscribere, from circum- around + scribere to write. The term has been in English since the medieval period and remains standard in mathematical writing, as well as in more general uses to denote drawing boundaries or setting limits.