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cycle

/ˈsaɪkəl/

When used as a noun to mean a bicycle, "cycle" is slightly more formal or British in style; in everyday American English, "bike" is much more common. As a verb meaning to ride a bicycle, it is commonly used without an object (intransitively). For example, you say "I cycle to work," not "I cycle my bike to work." When describing processes (like the water cycle), it is always a countable noun and usually requires an article like "the" or "a".

💬Casual Conversation

🎬Tuesday afternoon, David is in a meeting while Jessica is staring at a Gantt chart.
Jessica

The dev team is just cycling through the same bugs. We're totally spinning our wheels.

Jessica
David
David

Let's pivot and lean into that cycle for a bit.

💡
Jessica uses 'cycling through' to describe the repetitive failure of the software fixes, paired with the idiom 'spinning our wheels' (expending effort without making progress). David responds by incorrectly applying corporate buzzwords ('pivot', 'lean into') to a negative situation, reflecting his persona as a manager who tries too hard to sound like a tech visionary.

Meanings

noun

A series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order.

"The water cycle describes how water evaporates from the surface of the earth and falls back as rain."

noun

A bicycle or motorcycle.

"He decided to commute to work by cycle to avoid traffic."

verb (intransitive)

To ride a bicycle.

"She cycles to the library every Tuesday."

verb (transitive)

To move through a sequence of states or stages in a repetitive manner.

"The software will cycle through all available channels until a signal is found."

Related Words

Last Updated: May 22, 2026Report an Error