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circumstantial Definition

cir·cum·stan·tial (sʉr′kəm stan′s̸həl)

adjective

  1. having to do with, or depending on, circumstances
  2. not of primary importance; incidental
  3. full or complete in detail
  4. full of pomp or display; ceremonial

circumstantial Related Forms
cir′·cum·stan′·tially adverb
circumstantial Synonyms

circumstantial

modif.

  1. Detailed

    minute, environmental, precise; see detailed.

  2. Depending upon circumstances

    presumptive, presumed, inferential, indirect, inconclusive, inferred, implied, deduced, incidental, secondary, contingent, dependent, extraneous, hearsay, evidential; see also hypothetical 1, uncertain 2.

circumstantial Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • evidence: Joan also looks back over the ' circumstantial evidence ' of the Woman Within during her marriage to ' G ' .
  • clause: For other marginal time references in the form of a circumstantial clause closing an episode, see Andersen, Sentence, p.81.
  • detail: The rest is just circumstantial, insignificant detail is what gives birth to mundane beauty.
  • account: The next day I amused the princess and the cardinal by a circumstantial account of what had happened.
  • case: In fact, a purely circumstantial case could well be a very good one.
  • sdm.n=f: Circumstantial sDm.n=f can have two values: the one you proposed, and a sequential one, to which Geoffrey has pointed.

Modifying Another Word

  • purely: Any acts previous to my decision to take a walk are purely circumstantial in any link to myself.
  • largely: But to date the evidence released into the public domain has been largely circumstantial.
  • only: However each individual area of study is only circumstantial evidence of devil worship.
  • very: There is evidence that on more than one occasion he was at least working on a very circumstantial account of the speech.
  • highly: Inspector Grace tells Dennis he looks a strong suspect on the ( highly circumstantial?
  • all: But, as Mr Roberts eloquently put it, they were all circumstantial.
circumstantial Quotes

How circumstantial reality is! Facts are like individual letters, with their spikes and loops and thorns, that make up words: eventually they hurt our eyes, and we long to take a bath, to rake the lawn, to look at the sea.

—Updike,John Hoyer