surrounding
surrounding Lexical Profile
surrounding Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Located or situated all around a particular place, person, or thing; encircling or neighboring.
"The hikers climbed to the summit to admire the panoramic view of the surrounding valleys."
• noun
The physical conditions, objects, or landscape around a person or thing (usually used in the plural, 'surroundings').
"The rescued wildlife quickly adapted to their new natural surroundings in the sanctuary."
Word Nuance & Usage
As an adjective, 'surrounding' is used almost exclusively before a noun (attributively), as in 'the surrounding countryside.' As a noun meaning one's environment or neighborhood, it is nearly always used in the plural form 'surroundings.'
• Rhymes for surrounding
Word Origin & Etymology
Derived from the verb 'surround', which comes from Anglo-Norman 'surunder' and Late Latin 'superundare', meaning 'to overflow' (from Latin 'super-', meaning 'over', and 'undare', meaning 'to rise in waves'). In the 17th century, the word's meaning shifted to 'enclose on all sides' through folk-etymological association with the English word 'round'.