cyclic

comparative more cyclic · superlative most cyclic

1. Characterized by, or moving in cycles, or happening at regular intervals; cyclical

   The weather had a cyclic pattern of rain and sun.

   1 more example

   Our recent article on the York-Knaresborough-Harrogate branch mentioned that the diesel multiple-units covering the passenger service did so in the course of complicated cyclic diagrams.

   1960 March, “Talking of Trains: N.E. cyclic m.u. workings”, in Trains Illustrated, page 136

   Synonyms: periodic

2. chemistryHaving chains of atoms arranged in a ring.

   Benzene and cyclohexane are both cyclic compounds.

3. biologyHaving parts arranged in a whorl.
4. mathematicsBeing generated by only one element.
5. geometryAble to be inscribed in a circle.
6. engineeringFiring at its full cyclic rate.

   1 more example

   On it came, closer and closer, and as it did so it became clear that the pilot, if he was alive, had terminal intentions. Though the torpedo somehow missed, the plane itself did not. To those watching helplessly from other stations, the ship's antiaircraft gunners, in their final moments, were an inspiration: eyes focused through iron sights on the plane as it sped at them, weapons hot, going cyclic, hunched down and never flinching until the Betty struck high on the mainmast, killing them all.

   2011, James D. Hornfischer, “26: Suicide”, in Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, retrieved 17 Dec 2022, page 256

plural cyclics

1. aeronauticsThe flight control used to control a helicopter's direction and rate of horizontal movement by tilting the lift vector of the helicopter's main rotor disk.

1. not comparableOf or relating to the Ancient Greek Epic Cycle.

   Though Haubold avoids speculating on dates and mechanisms of transmission, his genre of cosmic history in Greece depends on the formation of a Hesiodic and Cyclic canon, not long before the sixth century.

   2025 December 12, Tom Hercules Davies, “Horses, Wheels, Languages: Greek, Mesopotamian and Indic Epic on the Eurasian Steppe”, in The Classical Quarterly, volume 75, number 1, page 18