life cycle
/ˈlaɪf ˌsaɪ.kəl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.58 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The course of stages through which an organism passes from fertilized zygote until maturity, reproduction, and death.
noun
The useful life of a product or system; the developmental history of an individual or group in society.
Example Sentences
- "Meronym: life forms"
- "Plants’ life cycles are an attractive subject of study for citizen science because they are relatively easy to discern. In fact, the name for the field in which we work, phenology, literally means “the science of appearance.” The word was coined just a few years after Thoreau made his phenological observations, from the Greek phaino (to show or appear) and logos (to study)."
- "New insights into bee movements and life cycles have been uncovered after researchers tracked the insects using tiny QR codes glued onto their backs."
- "Since it began operating in 1950, Sellafield has had different duties. First it manufactured plutonium for nuclear weapons. Then it generated electricity for the National Grid, until 2003. It also carried out years of fuel reprocessing: extracting uranium and plutonium from nuclear fuel rods after they’d ended their life cycles."