/peuh rif"euh ree/ , n. , pl. peripheries .
1. the external boundary of any surface or area.
2. the external surface of a body.
3. the edge or outskirts, as of a city or urban area.
4. the relatively minor, irrelevant, or superficial aspects of the subject in question: The preliminary research did not, of course, take me beyond the periphery of my problem.
5. Anat. the area in which nerves end.
[ 1350-1400; peripheria periphéreia circumference, lit., a bearing round, equiv. to peri- PERI- + phér ( ein ) to BEAR 1 + -eia -Y 3 ; r. ME periferie periferia, var. sp. of LL peripheria ]
Syn. 1. circumference, perimeter.
Ant. 1, 2. center.