Cyclical

How to spell cyclical

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cyclical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cyclical mean?

1. adjectiveOccurring in regular, repeating cycles or recurring at predictable intervals.

Cyclical in a sentence

• The housing market follows a cyclical pattern of boom and slump.

• Retail staffing is cyclical, peaking every year before the holidays.

Where does cyclical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek kyklos, which literally meant a circle or a wheel. From it Greek formed kyklikos, 'moving in a circle', which passed into Latin as cyclicus and then into late medieval and Renaissance Latin scholarship. English picked up 'cyclic' in the seventeenth century, and the longer form 'cyclical' followed soon after, the extra -al ending simply reinforcing its role as an adjective. The same kyklos root sits inside everyday words such as 'cycle', 'bicycle', 'recycle', and 'cyclone', so anyone who can spell 'cycle' already holds the key to the tricky opening: it is cy-, not si- or ci-. The sense has stayed close to the original image of a wheel turning, describing anything that recurs in a regular, repeating sequence.

How the word is built

• cycl- (from Greek kyklos: circle, wheel)
• -ic (adjective)
• -al (adjective suffix)