Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
circumstantial \cir`cum*stan"tial\ (s[~e]r`k[u^]m*st[a^]n"shal), a. [Cf. F. circonstanciel.]
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Consisting in, or pertaining to, circumstances or particular incidents.
The usual character of human testimony is substantial truth under circumstantial variety.
--Paley. -
Incidental; relating to, but not essential.
We must therefore distinguish between the essentials in religious worship . . . and what is merely circumstantial.
--Sharp. -
Abounding with circumstances; detailing or exhibiting all the circumstances; minute; particular.
Tedious and circumstantial recitals.
--Prior.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.
--Wharton.Syn: See Minute.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, from Latin circumstantia (see circumstance) + -al (1). Related: Circumstantially. Circumstantial evidence is attested by 1691.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Pertaining to or dependent on circumstances, especially as opposed to essentials; incidental, not essential. 2 Abounding with circumstances; detailing or exhibiting all the circumstances; minute; particular. 3 Full of circumstance or pomp; ceremonial. n. (context chiefly in the plural English) Something incidental to the main subject, but of less importance.
WordNet
adj. fully detailed and specific about particulars; "a circumstantial report about the debate"
Wikipedia
Circumstantial may refer to:
- Circumstantial evidence, in law
- Circumstantial thinking, in psychiatry and psychopathology
- Circumstantial voice, in linguistics
Usage examples of "circumstantial".
Circumstantial evidence was against him, for The Shadow stood armed, a trespasser on the Beaverwood property, and above him, grinning in macabre glee, was the tilted corpse impaled upon the gate spikes, flinging down a silent accusation.
The People, and binding upon this Court, that both components of the corpus delicti shall not be established by circumstantial evidence.
They were circumstantial reports of the sulfation of the planet, Chu Hsi.
King Charles wrote a letter with his own hand to the queen of England, containing a circumstantial detail of his affairs, the warmest expressions of acknowledgment, and the highest encomiums on her subjects, particularly the earl of Peterborough.
I do believe it is just and appropriate to find that a good circumstantial case for the crime of murder has been made, and I therefore order this matter be tried by a trio of adjudicators, assuming anyone still wishes to pursue the issue.
In addition, we need to keep in mind all of the circumstantial evidence suggesting that few Iraqis will fight to the death to save Saddam and the fact that there is very little evidence indicating the opposite.
The first question the abbe asked me was whether I thought myself capable of paying a visit to eight or ten men-of-war in the roads at Dunkirk, of making the acquaintance of the officers, and of completing a minute and circumstantial report on the victualling, the number of seamen, the guns, ammunition, discipline, etc.
Our calculations yielded bits and pieces of supporting circumstantial evidence, but we could not find definitive proof.
In light of the bloodiness of the crime, its hands-on physicality, and the number of victims and defendants, the discovery of a few mass-produced fibers from items available in Wal-Marts and other clothiers all over the country struck Lax as an infinitesimal amount of evidence, which was also highly circumstantial.
What can you make of those circumstantial statements we have seen in the papers, of children forming mysterious friendships with ophidians of different species, sharing their food with them, and seeming to be under some subtile influence exercised by those creatures?
Instead of representing them as a community of lusty savages, who are leading a merry, idle, innocent life, he enters into a very circumstantial and learned narrative of certain unaccountable superstitions and practices, about which he knows as little as the islanders themselves.
Unfortunately, the candy wrappers from the room above the cave were too smudged to get a print match, and the peculiar folding of the cellophane is only circumstantial evidence and not very conclusive.
But it is curious that so discredited were the newspapers of that period that a large majority of New Yorkers, for example, did not believe the most copious and circumstantial accounts of the German air-fleet until it was actually in sight of New York.
Aunt Chloe by at least half a dozen juvenile messengers, that dignitary only gave certain very gruff snorts, and tosses of her head, and went on with every operation in an unusually leisurely and circumstantial manner.
There is some debate as to whether Seneca was part of the conspiracy, but all circumstantial evidence points to his involvement, and most commentators conclude with Momigliano in CAH, X, p.