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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Of, relating to, or characterized by cycles: a cyclic pattern of weather changes.
  2. adj. Recurring or moving in cycles: cyclical history.
  3. adj. Chemistry Of or relating to compounds having atoms arranged in a ring or closed-chain structure.
  4. adj. Botany Having parts arranged in a whorl.
  5. adj. Botany Forming a whorl.
  6. adj. Linguistics Of, relating to, or characterized by the cycle: a cyclic application of a rule.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Pertaining to or moving in a cycle or circle; specifically, governed by a regular law of variation, according to which the final and initial terms of the series of changes or states are identical.
  2. Connected with a literary cycle: specifically applied to certain ancient Greek poets (sometimes inclusive of Homer) who wrote on the Trojan war and the adventures of the heroes connected with it. See cycle, 5.
  3. In ancient metrics, delivered more rapidly than usual, so as to occupy only three times or moræ instead of four: used to note certain dactyls and anapests. Thus, a cyclic dactyl is equivalent in time to a trochee, and a cyclic anapest to an iambus.
  4. n. A cyclic poem.
  5. In chem., containing a cycle or ring.
  6. In botany, arranged in whorls: said of the stamens, petals, etc., in a flower; also, having the parts so arranged: said of the flower; cyclical. In composition used in this sense and also with reference to the annnal course or cycle of plant-life. See monocyclic, 1 and *3, bicyclic, pentacylic, *dicyclic, and *pleiocyclic.
  7. In geometry, having its vertices all on the same circle: thus, if a quadrilateral has its vortices concyclic it is cyclic.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Characterized by, or moving in cycles, or happening at regular intervals
  2. adj. Of a compound having chains of atoms arranged in a ring
  3. adj. Having parts arranged in a whorl
  4. adj. being generated by only one element

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Of or pertaining to a cycle or circle; moving in cycles.
  2. adj. Having atoms bonded to form a ring structure. Opposite of acyclic.
  3. adj. Recurring in cycles{2}; having a pattern that repeats at approximately equal intervals; periodic. Opposite of noncyclic.
  4. adj. Marked by repeated cycles{2}.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. forming a whorl or having parts arranged in a whorl
  2. adj. of a compound having atoms arranged in a ring structure
  3. adj. recurring in cycles
  4. adj. conforming to the Carnot cycle
  5. adj. marked by repeated cycles

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • Ed_Jogg Quadrilaterals can be cyclic. Feb 9, 2011

  • yarb Citation on nympho. Jun 22, 2008

‘cyclic’ has been looked up 1319 times, loved by 1 person, added to 16 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.