cycle

English

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 cyclus and wheel (see there for more).

Pronunciation

Noun

cycle (plural cycles)

  1. An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
    the cycle of the seasons, or of the year
  2. A complete rotation of anything.
  3. A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
    electoral cycle    menstrual cycle    news cycle
    • 2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
      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.
    • 2023 May 8, Jonathan Head, “Thailand election: The young radicals shaking up politics”, in BBC News (World)‎:
      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 […]
  4. The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
  5. (music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.
    The interval cycle C4 consists of the pitch classes 0, 4 and 8; when starting on E, it is realised as the pitches E, G# and C.
  6. A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy.
    The "Ring of the Nibelung" is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner.
  7. A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
    Put the washing in on a warm cycle.
    the spin cycle
  8. A pedal-powered vehicle, such as a unicycle, bicycle, or tricycle, or a motorized vehicle that has either two or three wheels.
    Hyponyms: motorbike, motorcycle, unicycle, bicycle, tricycle, motortrike
  9. (baseball) A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
    Jones hit for the cycle in the game.
  10. (graph theory) A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
  11. (topology, algebraic topology) A chain whose boundary is zero.
  12. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb
    • 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:
      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.
  13. An age; a long period of time.
  14. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
  15. (botany) One entire round in a circle or a spire.
    • 1857, Asa Gray, First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology:
      a cycle or set of leaves
  16. (weaponry) A discharge of a taser.
    • 2014, R.T. Wyant, Thomas Burns, Risk Management of Less Lethal Options, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 211:
      Officers have made the mistake of applying many Taser cycles, expecting the suspect to relent.
  17. (aviation) One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
  18. (sports) 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.
    The deterioration of his physique may be a result of his being off cycle.

Usage notes
  • (baseball sense): As in the example sentence, one is usually said to hit for the cycle. However, other uses also occur, such as hit a cycle and complete the cycle.

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → Japanese: サイクル (saikuru)

Translations
music: interval cycle — see interval cycle
imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens — see celestial sphere

Verb

cycle (third-person singular simple present cycles, present participle cycling, simple past and past participle cycled)

  1. To ride a bicycle or other cycle.
    • 2021 July 28, Christian Wolmar, “Forgotten by the railways, but ripe for the exploring”, in RAIL, number 936, page 35:
      Well, during our short staycation at Humberston Fitties, just south of Cleethorpes, we cycled through the very unspoilt Lincolnshire Wolds, which are by no means flat and boring as conventional wisdom about the county suggests.
  2. To go through a cycle or to put through a cycle.
  3. (electronics) To turn power off and back on
    Avoid cycling the device unnecessarily.
  4. (ice hockey) To maintain a team's possession of the puck in the offensive zone by handling and passing the puck in a loop from the boards near the goal up the side boards and passing to back to the boards near the goal
    They have their cycling game going tonight.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French, from Late Latin cyclus.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /sikl/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

cycle m (plural cycles)

  1. cycle
    cycle de l’eau ― water cycle
    cycle du carbone ― carbon cycle
  2. (Switzerland) middle school, junior high school

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

Latin

Noun

cycle

  1. vocative singular of cyclus
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