cycle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsaɪ.kəl/
ipa: [ˈsaɪ.kɫ̩]
ipa: /ˈsaɪ.kəl/
ipa: [ˈsʌɪ.kəl]
ipa: /ˈsɑe.kəl/
ipa: [ˈsɑe.kɫ̩]
ipa: /ˈsaɪ.kəl/
ipa: [ˈsɑe̯.kɫ̩]
ipa: [ˈsɑe̯.ko]
ipa: [ˈsɑe̯.kʊ]
rhymes: -aɪkəl
Forms: form: cycles
Etymology: From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Hellenic *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”).
Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cyclus, and wheel (see there for more).
Senses: examples: text: the cycle of the seasons, or of the year
text: VVages have been tvvice raiſed in my time, and they bear a full proportion, or even a greater than formerly, to the medium of proviſion during the laſt bad cycle of tvventy years.
ref: 1795 November (date written), Edmund Burke, Thoughts and Details on Scarcity, […], London: […] [T. Gillet] for F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J[ohn] Hatchard, […], published 1800, →OCLC, page 6:
glosses: An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
glosses: A complete rotation of anything.
examples: text: electoral cycle    menstrual cycle    news cycle
text: No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
ref: 2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
text: Ice is one of a slate of young, idealistic candidates for Move Forward who have joined mainstream politics in the hope that this election allows Thailand to break the cycle of military coups […]
ref: 2023 May 8, Jonathan Head, “Thailand election: The young radicals shaking up politics”, in BBC News (World):
glosses: A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
glosses: The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
examples: text: The "Ring of the Nibelung" is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner.
glosses: A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy.
examples: text: Put the washing in on a warm cycle.
text: the spin cycle
glosses: A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
glosses: A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle, or a motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels.
examples: text: Jones hit for the cycle in the game.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
topics: algebraic-topology
mathematics
sciences
topology
glosses: A chain whose boundary is zero.
examples: text: With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb
ref: 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: There appears to be no absolute cycle in the universe; all is change and progression. No planet ever revolves twice precisely in the same orbit.
ref: 1858, [anonymous], “Appendix”, in Edmund Burke, The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated; Being a Reprint of Edmund Burke’s Celebrated Essay, Entitled “A Vindication of Natural Society:” […], London: Holyoake and Company, […], →OCLC, page 54:
glosses: An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
examples: text: Thro' the shadow of the world we sweep into the younger day: / Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
ref: 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 110:
glosses: An age; a long period of time.
examples: text: [H]ere we endeavour to preſent our Gard'ners with a compleat Cycle of what is requiſite to be done throughout every Moneth of the Year: […]
ref: 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] [Introduction to the Kalendar.]”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 56:
glosses: An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
examples: text: a cycle or set of leaves
ref: 1857, Asa Gray, First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: One entire round in a circle or a spire.
examples: text: Officers have made the mistake of applying many Taser cycles, expecting the suspect to relent.
ref: 2014, R.T. Wyant, Thomas Burns, Risk Management of Less Lethal Options, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 211:
topics: engineering
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: A discharge of a taser.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
examples: text: The deterioration of his physique may be a result of his being off cycle.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A scheduled period of time of weeks or months wherein a performance-enhancing substance or, by extension, supplement is applied, to be followed by another one where it is not or the dosage is lower.
examples: text: […] the Plan incorporates in proper combination every available modern technique, including extensive electrification on the new standard high-voltage a.c. system at a frequency of 50 cycles; main-line diesel traction as a half-way house to electrification; lightweight diesel trains for secondary and branch services; and a smaller wagon fleet doing more work by the use of continuous brakes in conjunction with modernised terminals and marshalling yards.
ref: 1958 January 23, 'Borderer', “Ten Years of British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 15:
glosses: A hertz; cycle per second.
Hyponyms: aerocycle
allocycle
anthracycline
anticycle
anticyclic
barocycle
Bethe-Weizsäcker cycle
Bethe–Weizsäcker cycle
biocycle
biogeochemical cycle
Born-Haber cycle
Brayton cycle
break the cycle
business cycle
cadmium cycle
Calvin cycle
carbocycle
carbon cycle
carbon-nitrogen cycle
carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle
Carnot cycle
Carnot's cycle
carrier cycle
cell cycle
citrate cycle
citric acid cycle
clock cycle
CNO cycle
cocycle
combined cycle
Cori cycle
cybercycle
duty cycle
ecocycle
endocycle
estrous cycle
Eulerian cycle
execution cycle
exercise cycle
fairy cycle
four-cycle
gigacycle
glyoxylate cycle
Hamiltonian cycle
Hampson-Linde cycle
handcycle
hemicycle
hermeneutic cycle
heterocycle
hexacycle
homocycle
hovercycle
hydrocycle
hydrogen cycle
hydrolic cycle
hype cycle
hypercycle
instruction cycle
Jespersen's cycle
Joule's cycle
Juglar cycle
kilocycle
Kitchin cycle
Krebs cycle
Kuznets cycle
life cycle
limit cycle
love cycle
lunar cycle
lysogenic cycle
lytic cycle
machine cycle
macrocycle
megacycle
menstrual cycle
mesocycle
metallocycle
Metonic cycle
microcycle
midcycle
Milankovitch cycle
motor cycle
nasal cycle
nitrogen cycle
operating cycle
ornithine cycle
Otto cycle
ovarian cycle
pedal cycle
phosphorus cycle
power cycle
pseudocycle
quasicycle
Rabi cycle
Rankine cycle
Siemens cycle
software life cycle
solar cycle
Sothic cycle
subcycle
sulfur cycle
sulfur-iodine cycle
sulphur cycle
supercontinent cycle
supercycle
TCA cycle
teracycle
tetracycle
time cycle
topping cycle
tricarboxylic acid cycle
urea cycle
uterine cycle
vicious cycle
virtuous cycle
Walden cycle
walk cycle
water cycle
Wilson cycle
Derived terms: acyclic
cyclase
cyclecar
cycle chord
cycledom
cycle group
cycleman
cyclene
cycle of fifths
cycle per second
cycle polo
cycle shorts
cycle sort
cycle sport
cycle threshold
cycle time
cyclewear
cyclic
cyclin
cyclism
cyclist
cyclize
cyclogaine
cyclol
decycle
downcycle
in cycle
intercycle
intracycle
monocycle
motor-cycle
multicycle
outcycle
oxacycle
pentacycle
pericycle
photocycle
polycycle
power-cycle
push-cycle
sixty cycle hum
skycycle
two-cycle
up-cycle
Related terms: bicycle
cycle clip
cycle lane
cycle path
cycle rack
cycle rickshaw
cycle track
cycleway
motorcycle
quadricycle
tricycle
unicycle