phrasal idiom · informal
run circles around
UK/rʌn ˈsɜːrkəlz əˈraʊnd/US/rʌn ˈsɝː.kəlz əˈraʊnd/run·CIR·cles·a·ROUND
to outperform someone easily; to be able to do something much better than someone else
Examples
“In the interview she ran circles around the other candidates with her clear answers.”
“A smartphone can run circles around older models in terms of speed.”
“He can run circles around his classmates on the maths test.”
Band 8 sentence
“In terms of processing power, the latest chipset runs circles around its competitors.”
Collocations
- run circles around someone / run circles around something
Word family
Common mistakes
run circle around→run circles around
run around circles→run circles around
Say it for a higher band
5do much better→6outperform→7+run circles around
Synonyms
outperform
Easily confused
outperform
“The new processor outperforms the previous generation in benchmarks.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In run …
Learn it with its set