virtuous circle

noun

variants or virtuous cycle

: a chain of events in which one desirable occurrence leads to another which further promotes the first occurrence and so on resulting in a continuous process of improvement

But the economy is depressed, in large part, because of the housing bust, which immediately suggests the possibility of a virtuous circle: an improving economy leads to a surge in home purchases, which leads to more construction, which strengthens the economy further, and so on.

—Paul Krugman

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

People can become more capable workers and professionals, starting a virtuous circle of uplifting their loved ones, neighborhoods and broader communities. —Grigorij Richters, Forbes, 3 June 2021

This forces cybercriminals to innovate on their offensive playbooks, which then calls for cyber startups to develop new defensive products, and the virtuous circle continues. —Bob Ackerman, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2023

This virtuous circle brought the internet to the masses and created cloud computing, search engines, the iPhone, Uber and same-day delivery. —Andy Kessler, WSJ, 7 Aug. 2022

The presence of large volumes of high-quality data inevitably leads to a virtuous circle. —Joe Gagnon, Forbes, 15 Aug. 2022

That would imply a virtuous circle, in which prosperity begets investment, which begets more prosperity and makes the economy more productive in the long term — a rising tide that lifts all boats. —New York Times, 6 Aug. 2022

Cheer powered the growth of capitalism, too, by boosting productivity (the economist Adam Smith identified a virtuous circle in which higher wages led to cheerfulness and thus more diligent work) and fueling the consumer economy. —Ian Beacock, The Atlantic, 2 Aug. 2022

The virtuous circle between developers and players is tighter in Web3. —Forbes, 25 Jan. 2022

Generosity brings out more generosity, a virtuous circle. —Grégoire Vigroux, Forbes, 6 June 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1903, in the meaning defined above