What word means to travel around the Earth?

The word that means to travel around the Earth is “circumnavigate.” It is a verb describing a journey that goes around the globe and generally returns to, or comes near, its starting point.

“Circumnavigate” comes from Latin: circum means “around,” while navigare means “to sail” or “to navigate.” Although the word originally emphasized travel by ship, it is now used for journeys by sea, air, land, or even human-powered travel.

The first recorded circumnavigation of Earth was completed by the Magellan-Elcano expedition. Ferdinand Magellan began the voyage in 1519, but he died in the Philippines in 1521; Juan Sebastián Elcano led the surviving crew back to Spain in 1522. The expedition crossed the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.

A common mix-up is “orbit,” which means to travel around Earth or another body through space along a gravitational path. “Circumnavigate” means to go around the surface or globe, while “orbit” usually refers to spaceflight. The related noun is “circumnavigation.”