Circus vs Cirque - What's the difference?
circus | cirque |
A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.
A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.
(historical) In the ancient Roman Empire, a building for chariot racing.
(military, World War II) A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.
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(obsolete) Circuit; space; enclosure.
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(geology) A curved depression in a mountainside with steep walls, forming the end of a valley.
* 1982 , (TC Boyle), Water Music , Penguin 2006, p. 344:
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Circus is a descendant of cirque.
As nouns the difference between cirque and circus
is that cirque is a curved depression in a mountainside with steep walls, forming the end of a valley while circus is a traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.circus
English
(circus)Noun
(es)- The circus will be in town next week.
- Oxford Circus in London is at the north end of Regent Street.
RAF Web - Air of Authority
- ... the squadron (No. 452) moved to Kenley in July 1941 and took part in the usual round of Circus , Rhubarb and Ramrod missions.
- The narrow circus of my dungeon wall. — Byron.
Derived terms
* media circus * three-ring circusCoordinate terms
* (open space) (l)References
cirque
English
Noun
(en noun)- Of course it's going to be bad whever the clouds let loose, but up here pussyfooting along the perimeter of toothy cirques and dead drops of anywhere from eighty to three hundred feet, it would be a disaster.
