Word: cycle Part of Speech: noun 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, kike, and wheel (see there for more). Pronunciation: /ˈsaɪ.kəl/, [ˈsaɪ.kɫ̩], [ˈsʌɪ.kəl], /ˈsɑe.kəl/, [ˈsɑe.kɫ̩] 1. An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed. Example: the cycle of the seasons, or of the year Example: 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. 2. A complete rotation of anything. 3. A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence. Example: electoral cycle menstrual cycle news cycle Example: 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. 4. The members of the sequence formed by such a process. 5. A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy. Example: The Ring of the Nibelung is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner. 6. A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device. Example: Put the washing in on a warm cycle. Example: the spin cycle 7. A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game. Example: Jones hit for the cycle in the game. 8. A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed. 9. A chain whose boundary is zero. 10. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres. Example: With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb Example: 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. 11. An age; a long period of time. Example: Thro' the shadow of the world we sweep into the younger day: / Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. 12. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar. Example: [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: […] 13. One entire round in a circle or a spire. Example: a cycle or set of leaves 14. A discharge of a taser. Example: Officers have made the mistake of applying many Taser cycles, expecting the suspect to relent. 15. One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage. 16. 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. Example: The deterioration of his physique may be a result of his being off cycle. 17. A hertz; cycle per second. Labels: plural, usually Example: […] 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.