epicycle.
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.
Meaning & usage
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.
Any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle, thus creating a hypocycloid or epicycloid.
A ring of atoms joining parts of an already cyclic compound
An ad hoc complication added to a model to make it fit the known data
Where this word comes 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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.