compassing

present participle of compass
1
2
as in circling
to travel completely around the great age of exploration, when ships of sail compassed the earth

Synonyms & Similar Words

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5

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for compassing
Verb
  • All of this comes in a context of France’s skyrocketing public debt, making fulfilling protester demands nearly impossible.
    — Colette Davidson, Christian Science Monitor, 19 Oct. 2026
  • They’re being asked to consider the most basic questions about meaning, and justice, and leading a fulfilling life.
    — Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 14 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • And the idea of circling the behavior of a group of people in a room.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026
  • In 2001, Michelle remembers hiding under her desk and hearing helicopters circling over her school.
    — Taylor Galgano, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Two teenage girls spent months plotting a mass shooting in Riverside County, officials say.
    — Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • The distinction matters because operating an unmanned vessel requires more than plotting a route.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 20 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Also excluded from the map are the University of Kansas Medical Center and the surrounding corner of Wyandotte County alongside existing STAR bond districts for other projects.
    — Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The third-quarter earnings season is gaining momentum, with investors closely watching corporate outlooks amid rising costs and uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence spending.
    — Deena Zaidi, CNBC, 21 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • During that period and beyond, Hawthorne kept a series of notebooks, which scholars see as an important primary source for understanding the ideas and descriptions that informed his early writings and later novels.
    — Robert S. Levine, The Conversation, 26 Oct. 2026
  • The science writer Ann Finkbender wrote a charming essay about understanding this principle of life in Last Word on Nothing.
    — Shayla Love, Vox, 25 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Brown said accomplishing those goals would require working with members of Congress as well as local and state officials.
    — Chelsea Jones, CBS News, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Following an orderly wind-down, UNRWA itself will neither be essential nor necessary to accomplishing the work that lies ahead in Gaza.
    — Beth Bailey, FOXNews.com, 6 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Then getting that energy to major cities means traversing some of the most pristine, spectacular natural corridors this nation has left, and particularly in the Southwest, rubbing up against the sacred lands of local tribal communities.
    — Sara Herschander, Vox, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Oil drops as Hormuz traffic rebounds Oil prices fell as new data showed crude exports from the Middle East surpassed prewar levels, though any respite may be short-lived as attacks on tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz increased.
    — Mary Lawrence Ware, semafor.com, 6 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Captured by the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, or SMILE, the footage reveals the full ring of auroral activity encircling Earth's north pole in ultraviolet light, stretching across both the night and day sides of our planet.
    — Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Dumas watched, charmed, his arms encircling his wife’s shoulders, and accepted an ice-cream sundae in a silver parfait cup.
    — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Compassing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/compassing. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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