circulate vs popularise

circulate and popularise both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
circulate	No	No	Yes	No
popularise	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, popularise is a hyponym of circulate; that is, popularise is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than circulate:

circulate: cause to become widely known
popularise: cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use

Other hyponyms of circulate include podcast, sow, generalise, generalize, popularize, vulgarise, vulgarize, carry, run.

circulate (verb)	popularise (verb)
cause to become widely known	make understandable to the general public
become widely known and passed on	cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use
move around freely from person to person or from place to place
move through a space, circuit or system, returning to the starting point
cause to be distributed
cause to move in a circuit or system