Other Word Forms
- cyclicality noun
- cyclically adverb
- noncyclical adjective
- noncyclically adverb
- procyclical adjective
Etymology
Origin of cyclical
Explanation
Though day-to-day weather changes are unpredictable, nature’s seasons can always be counted on to move in cyclical or predictable patterns. Cyclical is used to describe things that are regularly patterned or that occur in regular intervals. The root of cyclical is “cycle” which means movement in a circular fashion, or the circular fashion itself. Planets orbit the sun in cyclical patterns, the moon’s phases are cyclical as well. Some stock brokers say that the market is cyclical, but that may be just a way of telling people to keep investing when it's down.
Vocabulary lists containing cyclical
100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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Earth and the Solar System - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
More capacity will eventually come online, as it always does in the highly cyclical memory-chip industry, and prices will drop.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 19, 2026
But within the valuation data for the red-hot chip sector, there is a warning for investors in a hot pocket of an industry that has been cyclical for decades.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026
The car business remains cyclical, competitive, with lower-than-technology profits and profit margins.
From Barron's • Apr. 15, 2026
Productivity growth is volatile and often driven by short-lived cyclical factors.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
The controlled binding and unbinding of iron and oxygen—the cyclical rusting and unrusting of blood—allows effective oxygen delivery into tissues.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
