cycle
/ˈsaɪ.kəl/
"cycle" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cycle” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,477 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,477
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cycle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsaɪ.kəl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,477 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cycle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cycle is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsaɪ.kəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,477 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for cycle, with forms such as "ccycle", "ccyle", and "cyccle". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "cycles", "cyclic", "cycled", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Hellenic *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, chark… The correct English form is cycle, spelled C-Y-C-L-E.
Definition
- 1An interval of space or time in which one set of events or phenomena is completed.
- 2A complete rotation of anything.
- 3A process that returns to its beginning and then repeats itself in the same sequence.
- 4The members of the sequence formed by such a process.
- 5A series of poems, songs or other works of art, typically longer than a trilogy.
- 6A programme on a washing machine, dishwasher, or other such device.
- 7A single, a double, a triple, and a home run hit by the same player in the same game.
- 8A closed walk or path, with or without repeated vertices allowed.
- 9A chain whose boundary is zero.
- 10An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the celestial spheres.
- 11An age; a long period of time.
- 12An orderly list for a given time; a calendar.
- 13One entire round in a circle or a spire.
- 14A discharge of a taser.
- 15One take-off and landing of an aircraft, referring to a pressurisation cycle which places stresses on the fuselage.
- 16A scheduled period of time of weeks or months wherein a performance-enhancing substance or, by extension, supplement is applied, to be followed by another one where it is not or the dosage is lower.
- 17A hertz; cycle per second.
Etymology
From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Hellenic *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cyclus, kike, and wheel (see there for more).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccycle,ccyle,cyccle,cycel,cyclle,cylce,cyycle,yccle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cycle - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cycle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-Y-C-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsaɪ.kəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cycles” - see the side-by-side comparison. cycle vs cycles
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.