ambit

Meaning

1. The extent of actions, thoughts, or the meaning of words, etc.
2. The area or sphere of control and influence of something.
3. The boundary around a building, town, region, etc.
4. The circumference of something circular; also, an arc; a circuit, an orbit.
5. (obsolete) Chiefly in the plural form ambits: the open space surrounding a building, town, etc.; the grounds or precincts of a place.

Synonyms

compass

🧭

scope

reach

range

periphery

area

circuit

orbit

perimeter

precinct

confine

contour

country

district

field

land

limit

mete

nation

territory

outline

Terminus

bourn

military zone

province

purview

boundary

bound

region

border

sphere

state

stint

sweep

ceiling

template

circumscription

bourne

Hyphenated as

am‧bit

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈæmbɪt/

Etymology

From Late Middle English ambyte, borrowed from Latin ambitus (“circuit; circumference, perimeter; area within a perimeter; ground around a building; cycle, orbit, revolution”) (compare Late Latin ambitus (“neighbourhood; wall of a castle, monastery, or town; cloister; parish boundary”)), from ambīre + -tus (suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs). Ambīre is the present active infinitive of ambiō (“to go around, to skirt; to encircle, surround”), from ambi- (“prefix meaning ‘both, on both sides’”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front; face; forehead”)) + eō (“to go, move”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”)). The English word is a doublet of ambitus.