CIRCUMSTANCES

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does circumstances mean? 

• CIRCUMSTANCES (noun)
  The noun CIRCUMSTANCES has 2 senses:

1. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

2. a person's financial situation (good or bad)

  Familiarity information: CIRCUMSTANCES used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIRCUMSTANCES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion

Context example:

success that was her portion

Hypernyms ("circumstances" is a kind of...):

condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "circumstances"):

good fortune; good luck; luckiness (an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes)

providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)

bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)

failure (lack of success)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person's financial situation (good or bad)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Context example:

he found himself in straitened circumstances

Hypernyms ("circumstances" is a kind of...):

possession (anything owned or possessed)

 Context examples 

Think of me at my best, if circumstances should ever part us!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I shall not ever enter on the subject with her under any circumstances.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

His quietness, under the circumstances, was terrible.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A minute examination of the circumstances served only to make the case more complex.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Two days later this same performance was gone through under exactly similar circumstances.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The circumstances, probably, which first opened your eyes to his character.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

How could it be otherwise, when Helen, at all times and under all circumstances, evinced for me a quiet and faithful friendship, which ill-humour never soured, nor irritation never troubled?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was not four and twenty hours ago since they had met there to the same repast, but in circumstances how different!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A military life is not what I was intended for, but circumstances have now made it eligible.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Under the circumstances, what could Jo do but greet him civilly, and invite him in?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)