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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

periphery.

The outside boundary, parts or surface of something.

9 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pəˈɹɪf.ə.ɹi/Australia, Canada, UK, US[pəˈɹɪf.ɹi]Australia, Canada, UK, US
  1. The outside boundary, parts or surface of something.

    The suburbs are a city's periphery.
  2. A first-rank administrative division of Greece, subdivided into provinces.

  3. The more anomalous and infrequent aspects of a language, as opposed to the frequent and regular core aspects.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per-der. Ancient Greek περί (perí) Ancient Greek περῐ- (perĭ-) Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti Proto-Hellenic *pʰérō Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō) Ancient Greek περιφέρω (periphérō) Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-ēs Proto-Hellenic *-ēs Ancient Greek -ης (-ēs) Ancient Greek -ής (-ḗs) Ancient Greek περιφερής (peripherḗs) Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂der. Ancient Greek -ια (-ia) Ancient Greek περιφέρεια (periphéreia)bor. Latin peripheriabor. Middle French peripheriebor. English periphery Borrowed from Middle French peripherie. Compare Middle English periferie (“one of three layers of atmosphere (lower, middle, and upper) believed to surround the Earth”), from the same origin, although the Modern English term most likely does not descend from it.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.