cycle

[sahy-kuh l] /ˈsaɪ kəl/
noun
1.
any complete round or series of occurrences that repeats or is repeated.
2.
a round of years or a recurring period of time, especially one in which certain events or phenomena repeat themselves in the same order and at the same intervals.
3.
any long period of years; age.
4.
a bicycle, motorcycle, tricycle, etc.
5.
a group of poems, dramas, prose narratives, songs etc., about a central theme, figure, or the like:
the Arthurian cycle.
6.
Physics.
  1. a sequence of changing states that, upon completion, produces a final state identical to the original one.
  2. one of a succession of periodically recurring events.
  3. a complete alteration in which a phenomenon attains a maximum and minimum value, returning to a final value equal to the original one.
7.
Mathematics. a permutation of a set of elements that leaves the original cyclic order of the elements unchanged.
8.
Computers.
  1. the smallest interval of time required to complete an operation in a computer.
  2. a series of computer operations repeated as a unit.
verb (used without object), cycled, cycling.
9.
to ride or travel by bicycle, motorcycle, tricycle, etc.
10.
to move or revolve in cycles; pass through cycles.
Idioms
11.
hit for the cycle, Baseball. (of one player) to hit a single, double, triple, and home run in one game.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English cicle < Late Latin cyclus < Greek kýklos cycle, circle, wheel, ring, disk, orb; see wheel
Related forms
supercycle, noun
Examples from the web for cycle
  • It coincides with the fruit harvest, and marks the end of the agricultural cycle.
  • This cross breeding has the added effect of confusing the breeding cycle.
  • This exposes the animal to danger and also disrupts the breeding cycle.
  • The structure of chromosomes and chromatin varies through the cell cycle.
British Dictionary definitions for cycle

cycle

/ˈsaɪkəl/
noun
1.
a recurring period of time in which certain events or phenomena occur and reach completion or repeat themselves in a regular sequence
2.
a completed series of events that follows or is followed by another series of similar events occurring in the same sequence
3.
the time taken or needed for one such series
4.
a vast period of time; age; aeon
5.
a group of poems or prose narratives forming a continuous story about a central figure or event: the Arthurian cycle
6.
a series of miracle plays: the Chester cycle
7.
a group or sequence of songs See song cycle
8.
short for bicycle, tricycle, motorcycle
9.
(astronomy) the orbit of a celestial body
10.
a recurrent series of events or processes in plants and animals: a life cycle, a growth cycle, a metabolic cycle
11.
(physics) a continuous change or a sequence of changes in the state of a system that leads to the restoration of the system to its original state after a finite period of time
12.
one of a series of repeated changes in the magnitude of a periodically varying quantity, such as current or voltage
13.
(computing)
  1. a set of operations that can be both treated and repeated as a unit
  2. the time required to complete a set of operations
  3. one oscillation of the regular voltage waveform used to synchronize processes in a digital computer
14.
(in generative grammar) the set of cyclic rules
verb
15.
(transitive) to process through a cycle or system
16.
(intransitive) to move in or pass through cycles
17.
to travel by or ride a bicycle or tricycle
Derived Forms
cycling, noun, adjective
Word Origin
C14: from Late Latin cyclus, from Greek kuklos cycle, circle, ring, wheel; see wheel
Word Origin and History for cycle
n.

late 14c., from Late Latin cyclus, from Greek kyklos "circle, wheel, any circular body, circular motion, cycle of events," from PIE *kwel- "to roll, to move around, wheel" (cf. Sanskrit cakram "circle, wheel," carati "he moves, wanders;" Avestan caraiti "applies himself," c'axra "chariot, wagon;" Greek polos "a round axis" (PIE *kw- becomes Greek p- before some vowels), polein "move around;" Latin colere "to frequent, dwell in, to cultivate, move around," cultus "tended, cultivated," hence also "polished," colonus "husbandman, tenant farmer, settler, colonist;" Lithuanian kelias "a road, a way;" Old Norse hvel, Old English hweol "wheel;" Old Russian kolo, Polish koło, Russian koleso "a wheel").

v.

1842, "revolve in cycles," from cycle (n.). Meaning "to ride a bicycle" is from 1883. Related: Cycled; cycling.

cycle in Medicine

cycle cy·cle (sī'kəl)
n.

  1. An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs.

  2. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon.

  3. A periodically repeated sequence of events.

cycle in Science
cycle
  (sī'kəl)   

  1. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon. See also period.

  2. A circular or whorled arrangement of flower parts such as those of petals or stamens.


cycle in Technology
unit
A basic unit of computation, one period of a computer clock.
Each instruction takes a number of clock cycles. Often the computer can access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so one speaks also of "memory cycles".
Every hacker wants more cycles (noted hacker Bill Gosper describes himself as a "cycle junkie"). There are only so many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a computer the cycles get divided up among the users. The more cycles the computer spends working on your program rather than someone else's, the faster your program will run. That's why every hacker wants more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer to respond.
The use of the term "cycle" for a computer clock period can probably be traced back to the rotation of a generator generating alternating current though computers generally use a clock signal which is more like a square wave. Interestingly, the earliest mechanical calculators, e.g. Babbage's Difference Engine, really did have parts which rotated in true cycles.
[Jargon File]
(1997-09-30)