to revolve around
84
3.5
- phrasal verb
- /rɪˈvɑlv əˈraʊnd/
:
girar en torno a
- Family time essentially revolves around the needs of children and supports a heteronormative framework.
- revolve around the issue
- life revolves around
- revolve around a theme
Your whole life revolves around the people you're around.
- Your whole life revolves around the people you're around.
- He says all these present struggles revolve around the question, who are we?
- All right, Well, these all revolve around summertime or vacation stuff.
- So your whole life revolved around that, not about stats.
- And it's it revolves around having a higher purpose.
- And it all revolves around Birth of a Nation, the film.
- So many problems that so many of us have revolve around sleep issues.
- And her moods revolve around this football team.
- So the whole stinking thing ends up revolving around this word.
- Things in this performance revolve around fabric.
Examples
-
So yeah, my life right now revolves around my school and I love it.
-
The next level of questions to be answered revolves around the office itself.
Academic text (2011) -
So many problems that so many of us have revolve around sleep issues.
-
And it all revolves around Birth of a Nation, the film.
-
Here the issues are more likely to revolve around jobs and social services.
Academic text (2008) -
All right, I will address the issue, and the issue revolves around representation.
-
I spoke with Ruth in the museum, and much of our conversation revolved around its development.
Academic text (1999) -
Your whole life revolves around the people you're around.
-
Another vital set of queries revolves around why, exactly, you would like to be an administrator.
Academic text (2017) -
My daily routine revolves around getting my children ready for school on time.
Synonyms
∞
2.0
Give most attention and effort to one person or task
279
3.1
Give your full attention to one activity or subject
210
2.8
To focus most attention on one thing
47
3.2
To have something as the main subject
To be mainly about one person, topic, or thing
Antonyms
How Central
213
3.8
84
3.5
∞
2.0
512
2.1
484
2.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to have something as the main focus' is a metaphorical extension of the literal motion in 'revolve' (to move in a circle) + 'around' (circling something), so a learner who knows both words can often map the physical centering to an abstract focus. Because the meaning relies on a figurative mapping (not purely literal composition), it is not fully predictable for all B1 learners despite being cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
The verb revolve around is often used for people, plans, or talks: imagine everything turning and coming back to one thing, as if it circles that point. That's why it means 'to be the main focus'.