CIRCUMSTANTIAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Circumstantial

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/sˌərkəmstˈæntʃəl/ /sˌərkəmstˈænʃəl/ Listen

adjective

circumstantial adj.

1.

Consisting in, or pertaining to, circumstances or particular incidents. "The usual character of human testimony is substantial truth under circumstantial variety."

2.

Incidental; relating to, but not essential. "We must therefore distinguish between the essentials in religious worship... and what is merely circumstantial."

3.

Abounding with circumstances; detailing or exhibiting all the circumstances; minute; particular. "Tedious and circumstantial recitals."

Circumstantial evidence (Law), evidence obtained from circumstances, which necessarily or usually attend facts of a particular nature, from which arises presumption. According to some authorities circumstantial is distinguished from positive evidence in that the latter is the testimony of eyewitnesses to a fact or the admission of a party; but the prevalent opinion now is that all such testimony is dependent on circumstances for its support. All testimony is more or less circumstantial..

Synonyms: See Minute.

noun

Circumstantial n. Something incidental to the main subject, but of less importance; opposed to an essential; generally in the plural; as, the circumstantials of religion.

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Etymology of 'Circumstantial'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Circumstantial" Quotes from Famous Books

... so many romantic and fabulous stories about ourselves, that we were sometimes in doubt whether people in Europe and elsewhere would really believe that we were ordinary human beings and not legendary monsters. On these occasions I read circumstantial reports of my death, and once a long, and by no means flattering, obituary (extending over several columns of a newspaper) in which I was compared to Garibaldi, "Jack the Ripper," and Aguinaldo. On another occasion I learned from British newspapers of my capture, ...

— My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War • Ben Viljoen

... cellar; this they asserted was the reason he would not consent to having the upper rooms of the house rented, and so they remained untenanted season after season. Thus, according to the general verdict (and assuredly the circumstantial evidence was strong), he was a miser of the most pronounced type,—"as stingy as could be," everybody agreed; and is not what everybody says usually accepted ...

— Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir • Mary Catherine Crowley

... brought together by a pre-existing interest in Mr. Browning's work should often ignore its authorized explanations, and should read and discuss it in the light of personal impressions more congenial to their own mind; and the various and circumstantial views sometimes elicited by a given poem did not serve to render it more intelligible. But the merit of true poetry lies so largely in its suggestiveness, that even mistaken impressions of it have their ...

— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr

... witness against an innocent man. He took the money from the safe, drew himself up by the rope, closed the trap door, locked up the rope and threw the stone into the pond. In France he would be safe to spend the proceeds of his crime. A nice bit of circumstantial evidence, ...

— The Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks • Charles Felton Pidgin

... a disease or deformity in nature for which there is not some edifice, in which the afflicted are lodged, fed, and kindly treated. Would that we had such institutions in Hindustan!" In pursuance of this feeling, we now find him visiting the Blind Asylum and the Deaf and Dumb School; and the circumstantial details into which he enters of the comforts provided for the inmates of these establishments, and the proficiency which many of them had attained in trades and accomplishments apparently inconsistent with their privations, sufficiently ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 • Various

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