circumference (sir-kum'fer-ense)

The outline of a more or le circular or spherical figure or body; the distance around it. anteroposterior c. of the skull. The c. of a plane touching the nasal point and the opisthion. frontal c. The distance, measured on the surface of the skull, between the nasal and coronal sutures, horizontal c. of the skull. The c. of the skull where it is cut by a horizontal plane pa ing through the external occipital protuberance and the upper border of the orbits, larger c. of the fetal head. That c. which touches the two extremities of the greatest anteroposterior diameter, le er (or obstetrical) c. of the fetal head. That c. which touches the two extremities of the suboccipitobregmatic diameter. occipital C. The distance, measured on the surface of the skull, between the lambda and the posterior border of the foramen magnum, transverse c. of the skull. The c. of a plane pa ing through a point between the bregma and vertex and the two supra-auricular points. [Lat., circum, round, + ferre, to bear.]