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Proscribe vs Circumscribe - What's the difference?

proscribe | circumscribe |

As verbs the difference between proscribe and circumscribe

is that proscribe is to forbid or prohibit while circumscribe is to draw a line around; to encircle.

proscribe

English

Usage notes

* The latter pronunciation is used when added distinction from (prescribe) is desired.

Verb

(proscrib)
  • To forbid or prohibit.
  • To denounce.
  • To banish or exclude.
  • Usage notes

    * Avoid the erroneous construction “proscribe against”; substitute “proscribe” alone or the phrase “pre scribe against”.

    Antonyms

    * prescribe

    circumscribe

    English

    Verb

    (circumscrib)
  • To draw a line around; to encircle.
  • To limit narrowly; to restrict.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].}}
  • (geometry) To draw the smallest circle or higher-dimensional sphere that has (a polyhedron, polygon, etc.) in its interior.
  • Derived terms

    * circumscription