life cycle

noun

1

: the series of stages in form and functional activity through which an organism passes between successive recurrences of a specified primary stage

2

: life history sense 2

3

: a series of stages through which something (such as an individual, culture, or manufactured product) passes during its lifetime

Examples of life cycle in a Sentence

the life cycle of a shark

Recent Examples on the Web

Once the plant stops putting out new foliage in the fall, its productive life cycle is over. —Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 7 Sep. 2025

Picking up all leaf litter helps to disrupt their life cycle. —Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Sep. 2025

Scambos says this is part of the normal life cycle of icebergs, something that's been happening for millennia, and doesn't appear to be part of climate change. —Kat Lonsdorf, NPR, 5 Sep. 2025

This time, the life cycle of the land, and the unlikely collaboration of landowners and conservationists, bird watchers and farmhands, provides a similar, albeit less intimate, corollary. —Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 4 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for life cycle

• recycle
• motorcycle

Kids Definition

life cycle

noun

1

: the series of stages of form and activity through which a living thing passes from a beginning stage (as an egg) in one individual to the same stage in its offspring

2

: life history sense 1

Medical Definition

life cycle

noun

1

: the series of stages in form and functional activity through which an organism passes between successive recurrences of a specified primary stage

2

: life history sense 1a