circumvented

verb

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in traversed
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 circumvented Now Nightmare Eclipse claims to have effectively circumvented the company’s patch through ShieldBreak by apparently leveraging a different method. — Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 12 Aug. 2026 Steve Ballmer, the team’s owner, invested $60 million into Aspiration, triggering allegations that the payment to Leonard circumvented the NBA salary cap. — Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2026 Capital controls were not being circumvented, instead they were being repriced. — Alice Liu, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026 In May, OpenAI also said a separate internal model circumvented its own sandbox restrictions to post benchmark results to GitHub rather than to an internal Slack channel, as it had been told to do. — Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 22 July 2026 Kawhi Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors is on hold pending the outcome of the NBA’s investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented salary-cap rules, the teams announced Thursday. — Tim Reynolds, Chicago Tribune, 10 July 2026 Anthropic had brushed off the White House’s concerns that guardrails on its Fable 5 model could be circumvented, adding to the string of fights the AI lab has gotten into with the White House. — Liz Rappaport, semafor.com, 16 June 2026 Torre’s team, and later The Athletic, dug into the connections between Aspiration and Clippers’ billionaire owner Steve Ballmer, who had invested $60 million in the company, and the NBA announced an investigation to determine whether Ballmer and the Clippers circumvented salary cap rules. — Shakeia Taylor, New York Times, 29 May 2026 The court ruled that lawmakers had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters when adopting the prior map. — ABC News, 4 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for circumvented
  1. bypassed
  2. avoided
  3. traversed
  4. evaded
  5. circled
  6. ignored
  7. encircled
  8. escaped
Verb
  • One of the biggest obstacles to many new power transmission projects is opposition from local communities and zoning authorities, a problem that can be bypassed if new grid lines stick close to existing infrastructure.
    — Shelby Talcott, semafor.com, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Inside the Heat, there has been optimism that Thompson would end up with the team, which is among the reasons Miami has bypassed Bradley Beal and DeMar DeRozan in free agency.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of bypassed
Verb
  • Oswego avoided sending the ball near the speedy Konkey on kickoffs to prevent a repeat of last week’s scoring on a return.
    — Jerry Birchfield, Chicago Tribune, 29 Aug. 2026
  • First, the Chiefs avoided an injury risk to Patrick Mahomes, who is recovering from knee surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL from last December.
    — Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of avoided
Verb
  • The film itself was an odyssey of a shoot, as the cast traversed multiple countries and territories—Scotland, Italy, the Western Sahara, Greece—in all types of weather.
    — Wisdom Iheanyichukwu, Vanity Fair, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Inside the operation, workers traversed a warehouse-sized maze of shelves, walking as much as 14 to 20 miles a day to fulfill orders.
    — SPIN Staff, SPIN, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of traversed
Verb
  • But Iran has, in many cases, successfully evaded the sanctions by setting up new front companies.
    — Rob Wile, NBC news, 24 Aug. 2026
  • The first, a corner, saw McBurnie free at the far post to hit a shot Lammens did well to claw out before the ball fell to Semi Ajayi in space in the six-yard box, having evaded Harry Maguire and Noussair Mazraoui.
    — Laurie Whitwell, New York Times, 23 Aug. 2026
Definition of evaded
Verb
  • Military helicopter circled overhead, searching for survivors, assessing the disaster and mapping out possible rescue and evacuation routes.
    — Shristi Kafle, Fortune, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Military helicopters circled overhead, searching for survivors, assessing the disaster and mapping out possible rescue and evacuation routes.
    — Niranjan Shrestha, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of circled
Verb
  • Neighbors said their complaints about the empty lot were ignored for years until a fire burned part of the property and neighbor Kayt Miranda's garage early on Wednesday morning.
    — Joy Benedict, CBS News, 28 Aug. 2026
  • The stock that spent two years being ignored by the same investors who loaded up on Hilton and Marriott is now having its moment.
    — Josh Brown,Sean Russo, CNBC, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of ignored
Verb
  • Instead of gold watches, silver handcuffs encircled their wrists.
    — Jonny Hallam, CNN Money, 27 Aug. 2026
  • The pair left their vehicle to find assistance, traversing salt flats toward Badwater Road, a two-lane highway encircled by mountains.
    — Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of encircled
Verb
  • In the mechanical maintenance shop, five employees and the foreman escaped, but two were killed from exposure to the chemical, the report said.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Simpson escaped pressure and rolled out to his left before firing a pass to diving receiver Brennan Presley for a touchdown.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of escaped

Browse Nearby Words

circumvent
circumvented
circumventing
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Cite this Entry

“Circumvented.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/circumvented. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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