What does "encirclement" mean?

The act of encircling or the state of being encircled

How do you pronounce "encirclement"?

Pronounced //ɪnˈsɜː(ɹ)kəlmənt//.

Common synonyms include: blockade, aerial tactics, airborne tactics, applied tactics, armored tactics, barrier tactics.

//ɪnˈsɜː(ɹ)kəlmənt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The act of encircling or the state of being encircled countable, uncountable
2
a war measure that isolates some area of importance to the enemy wordnet
3
The isolation of a target by the formation of a blockade around it countable, uncountable
"Not only did it give the Russians an abiding fear of encirclement, whether by nomadic hordes or by nuclear-missile sites, but it also launched them on their relentless drive eastwards and southwards into Asia, and eventually collision with the British in India."

"The US is pursuing the geopolitical encirclement of China."

From encircle + -ment.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.