circumventing

verb

present participle of circumvent
1
as in bypassing
to avoid having to comply with (something) especially through cleverness employees who try to circumvent the company's dress code

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in avoiding
to avoid by going around circumvented the traffic jam by taking an alternate route

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in circling
to travel completely around most casual joggers will be able to circumvent the reservoir without too much of a strain

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of circumventing Another means of circumventing the protection of the real property company is through veil piercing using an alter ego theory. — Jay Adkisson, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026 The arrangement could be considered circumventing the NBA salary cap, a serious violation of league rules. — Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2026 Some attorneys and advocates say that Florida’s family courts are essentially stripping parents of their rights to their children without any oversight, circumventing state law. — Shira Moolten, Sun Sentinel, 4 June 2026 Australia doubled the maximum penalty imposed on social media companies that fail to comply with the ban on under-16 users, as evidence grew that children are circumventing restrictions. — Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 30 June 2026 The reconciliation process could help the bill advance in the Senate by circumventing filibusters, advancing partisan tax or spending bills with a simple majority. — Emily Hallas, The Washington Examiner, 24 June 2026 While Polymarket’s terms of service bar US customers, traders have spoken publicly about circumventing the company’s restrictions by using a virtual private network. — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 28 May 2026 Digital media give more prominence to the role of scientists and PR professionals who can directly appeal to the public, circumventing the gatekeeping function that science journalists performed. — Prodromos Yannas, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 May 2026 Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg, who has cooperated with an NBA investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers possibly circumventing the salary cap via a no-show endorsement deal with Kawhi Leonard, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday. — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 2 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumventing
  1. bypassing
  2. avoiding
  3. circling
  4. evading
  5. traversing
  6. ignoring
  7. orbiting
  8. escaping
Verb
  • The country was able to keep its oil business mostly afloat by bypassing the strait with pipelines that shipped oil to a port in Yanbu on the other side of the nation.
    — David Goldman, CNN Money, 6 July 2026
  • Many stores now donate directly to food pantries, bypassing the food bank altogether.
    — John Lowrey, The Conversation, 6 July 2026
Definition of bypassing
Verb
  • There are pros and cons to trying to build strategies based on avoiding specific companies, noted Warren Hurt, chief investment officer at F&M Trust.
    — John Towfighi, CNN Money, 7 July 2026
  • Still, avoiding a direct conversation will only increase the pressure.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 6 July 2026
Definition of avoiding
Verb
  • The evening of the shoot, there was frequent hum of tourist helicopters circling the island, and a few party boats blasting music, which threatened to put a damper on the plans.
    — Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 3 July 2026
  • Minutes later the pike was just under the surface, circling close to the boat.
    — Jack G. Mell, Outdoor Life, 2 July 2026
Definition of circling
Verb
  • The suspect, 30‑year‑old Trevion Mark of Fort Worth, was arrested nearby without incident and charged with reckless endangerment and evading arrest in a motor vehicle, according to DPS.
    — Doug Myers, CBS News, 1 July 2026
  • Mark was charged with reckless endangerment and evading arrest in a motor vehicle and booked into the Tarrant County Jail.
    — Kamal Morgan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1 July 2026
Definition of evading
Verb
  • From the Higgs to the Next Frontier The road to the FCC remains long, and Europe has been traversing it for years.
    — Florencia Canelli, Scientific American, 1 July 2026
  • Spending a year in California versus a month traversing small town America is a big difference.
    — Zach Dean OutKick, FOXNews.com, 1 July 2026
Definition of traversing
Verb
  • Make Participation Effortless Reduce friction to the point where using it feels like less effort than ignoring it.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • For example, today, Americans might believe that the demands of racial equity or of evangelical Christianity are so pressing that executive power would be justified in ignoring the legislature or the judiciary to serve them.
    — Robert A. Ballingall, The Conversation, 2 July 2026
Definition of ignoring
Verb
  • For a generation of millennial founders and the professionals orbiting them, the most consequential business development of the year is happening nowhere near an office, a conference badge, or a LinkedIn message.
    — Jasmine Browley, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been probing for atmospheres around other rocky worlds orbiting red dwarfs, such as those in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of orbiting
Verb
  • The combination remained effective because escaping both antibodies required multiple simultaneous mutations rather than a single genetic change.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • Workers were able to prevent more than 1,000 other monkeys at the facility from escaping.
    — Brittany Miller, FOXNews.com, 30 June 2026
Definition of escaping

Browse Nearby Words

circumvented
circumventing
circumvention
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Circumventing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/circumventing. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on circumventing

Nglish: Translation of circumventing for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gambol

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All