circa

American  

[sur-kuh] / ˈsɜr kə /

preposition

1. about: used especially in approximate dates: ca, ca., c., c, cir., circ.

   The Venerable Bede was born circa 673.

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circa British  

/ ˈsɜːkə /

preposition

1. Abbreviation: c..   ca..  (used with a date) at the approximate time of

   circa 1182 bc.

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Etymology

Origin of circa

First recorded in 1860–65; from Latin: “around, about,” akin to circus circus

Example Sentences

My first laptop, circa 2000, was the iBook G3.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

“Chief Moore’s failure to initiate a complaint circa 2018-2021 against Palka compromised the investigation and allowed Palka to avoid criminal charges,” Turner wrote in the complaint obtained by The Times.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2025

AI isn’t the internet circa 1999 — it’s real, already embedded in products and business models — but markets don’t trade on logic, they trade on narrative.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 2, 2025

“It is a style of supernaturalist spirituality and miracle- and prophecy-based preaching that was fairly niche within American evangelicalism circa 2015,” explained Dr. Matthew Taylor, a religious scholar at the Institute for Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies.

From Salon • May 19, 2025

One was a thin girl in a black bathing suit who was having a lot of trouble putting up an orange umbrella at Jones Beach, circa 1936.

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger