epicycle
/ˈɛpɪˌsaɪkəl/noun
epicycle is spelled E-P-I-C-Y-C-L-E: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, epicycle means “A small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle; in Ptolemaic astronomy it was seen as the basis of revolution of the "seven…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of epicycle is epicycles.
How many letters and syllables are in epicycle?
| Letters | 8: E-P-I-C-Y-C-L-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 51 million words; the 222,788th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is epicycle?
Epicycle appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce epicycle?
- UK /ˈɛpɪˌsaɪkəl/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-epicycle.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of epicycle
- epicycles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does epicycle mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle; in Ptolemaic astronomy it was seen as the basis of revolution of the "seven planets", given a fixed central Earth.
Is it not [Philosophie], that […] teacheth miserie, famine and sicknesse to laugh? Not by reason of some imaginarie Epicicles, but by naturall and palpable reasons.
- 2
Any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle, thus creating a hypocycloid or epicycloid.
- 3
A ring of atoms joining parts of an already cyclic compound
- 4
An ad hoc complication added to a model to make it fit the known data
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Epicycle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does epicycle come from?
From Latin epicyclus, from Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος (epíkuklos), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”). The ad hoc complication sense is a generalization from the archetype supplied by the Ptolemaic astronomy sense.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).