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When something abuts something else, it is next to it or forms a border with it.
If you describe something as ambiguous, you mean that it is unclear or confusing because it can be understood in multiple ways.
Contiguous things are in contact with or near each other; contiguous events happen one right after the other without a break.
A cynosure is an object that serves as the center of attention.
If you delineate something, such as an idea or situation or border, you describe it in great detail.
Demarcation is the process of setting boundaries or limits; it is also a line that provides a distinct separation between two things.
When something encompasses something else, it includes all aspects of it or completely surrounds it.
To gerrymander a voting district is to change its physical boundaries in order to include more people who vote in a particular way.
The juxtaposition of two objects is the act of positioning them side by side so that the differences between them are more readily visible.
The propinquity of a thing is its nearness in location, relationship, or similarity to another thing.
When people or animals are quarantined, they are put in isolation so that they will not spread disease.
Noun
periphery
puh-RIF-uh-ree
Context
Let’s put all the bookshelves on the periphery or edges of the room and the couches in the center. That way, we can walk along the periphery or boundary of the room to browse for something to read. That way people standing at the periphery or surrounding outer space discussing what they are looking for will not disturb those who are reading quietly in the center.
Quiz:Try again!
If you are at the periphery of a large forest, where are you?
Computer PeripheralsPeripherals are the things that sit in the periphery of your computer.
Examples
Dozens of other fans came by and hung at the periphery of the group, wondering if they would be asked in, and then they drifted away when it became obvious that [Larry] Bird was paying them no mind.
—
Sports Illustrated
During these types of operations, a surgeon refers to the images displayed on computer monitors, but the monitors are typically placed on the periphery of the operating theater, away from the work at hand, or above the surgeon’s head.
—
Wired
As we get older and our bodies enjoy less natural freedom of movement, we tend to take up less space, both physically and metaphorically. . . . Our vision narrows, slowly erasing the periphery, leaving only what’s in front of our nose.
—
Twyla Tharp, American choreographer, from _Keep It Moving_
Horrified by the disorder, disease and crime of the Edwardian industrial metropolis, he advocated the creation of "garden cities" on the suburban periphery.
—
The Washington Post
A periphery of a building is the “state or condition of carrying around” that building. One’s peripheral vision describes the outer reaches of one’s eyesight, that is, what we see around the edges of our sight that is not our central gaze.
Word Constellation
Click for an interactive map of this word
Related Words
abut ·
contiguous* ·
delineate ·
demarcation+ ·
encompass ·
gerrymander ·
juxtaposition* ·
propinquity* ·
quarantine* ·
ambiguous* ·
cynosure+ ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
peripheral
adj
→
outer, external
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.
