EPICYCLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does epicycle mean? 

• EPICYCLE (noun)
  The noun EPICYCLE has 1 sense:

1. a circle that rolls around (inside or outside) another circle; generates an epicycloid or hypocycloid

  Familiarity information: EPICYCLE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EPICYCLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A circle that rolls around (inside or outside) another circle; generates an epicycloid or hypocycloid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("epicycle" is a kind of...):

circle (ellipse in which the two axes are of equal length; a plane curve generated by one point moving at a constant distance from a fixed point)

Derivation:

epicyclic; epicyclical (of or relating to an epicycle)

 Context examples 

But when it came to almagest and astrolabe, the counting of figures and reckoning of epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse and hound, and a vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher that he had lost his hold upon his scholar.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)