The circumference (from Latin circumferentia, meaning "carrying around") of a closed curve or circular object is the linear distance around its edge. The circumference of a circle is of special importance in geometry and trigonometry. Informally "circumference" may also refer to the edge itself rather than to the length of the edge. Circumference is a special case of perimeter: the perimeter is the length around any closed figure, but conventionally "perimeter" is typically used in reference to a polygon while "circumference" typically refers to a continuously differentiable curve.