surroundings

• IPA^(key): /səˈɹaʊndɪŋz/
• Hyphenation: sur‧round‧ings

• Audio (US):

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surroundings

1. plural of surrounding

surroundings pl (plural only)

1. The area surrounding someone or something, together with the objects and circumstances in the vicinity; the environment or ambiance.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     His tall, gaunt, stringy figure is insensible to fatigue, and his dry, half-sarcastic, and often wholly unsympathetic manner is uninfluenced by any change in his surroundings.

   • 1988 June, Spy, page 27:

     We like the way they live, in their penthouselike surroundings filled with *** ferns and goldfish.

   • 2010, Uché Okonkwo, Luxury Online: Styles, Systems, Strategies, page 226:

     The e-boutique has to engage them in an elevated way and they have to be stimulated by the virtual surroundings.

2. (physics) All parts of the universe that are not within the thermodynamic system of interest.