epicycle

[ ep-uh-sahy-kuh l ]
/ ˈɛp əˌsaɪ kəl /

noun

Astronomy. a small circle the center of which moves around in the circumference of a larger circle: used in Ptolemaic astronomy to account for observed periodic irregularities in planetary motions.
Mathematics. a circle that rolls, externally or internally, without slipping, on another circle, generating an epicycloid or hypocycloid.

Origin of epicycle

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin epicyclus < Greek epíkyklos. See epi-, cycle

OTHER WORDS FROM epicycle

ep·i·cy·clic [ep-uh-sahy-klik, -sik-lik] /ˌɛp əˈsaɪ klɪk, -ˈsɪk lɪk/, adjective

Words nearby epicycle

epicure, epicurean, epicureanism, epicurus, epicuticle, epicycle, epicyclic train, epicycloid, epicycloidal gear, epicycloidal wheel, epicystitis

Example sentences from the Web for epicycle

British Dictionary definitions for epicycle

epicycle
/ (ˈɛpɪˌsaɪkəl) /

noun

astronomy (in the Ptolemaic system) a small circle, around which a planet was thought to revolve, whose centre describes a larger circle (the deferent) centred on the earth
a circle that rolls around the inside or outside of another circle, so generating an epicycloid or hypocycloid

Derived forms of epicycle

epicyclic (ˌɛpɪˈsaɪklɪk, -ˈsɪklɪk) or epicyclical, adjective

Word Origin for epicycle

C14: from Late Latin epicyclus, from Greek epikuklos; see epi-, cycle

Scientific definitions for epicycle

epicycle
[ ĕp′ĭ-sī′kəl ]

In Ptolemaic cosmology, a small circle representing a temporary adjustment to the position of a planet as it orbits the Earth. The five known planets, along with the Sun and Moon, were conceived as moving through the sky in large circular paths with the Earth at their center. As a planet moved along its path, it occasionally departed from its regular motion to follow a much smaller circle centered on the orbital path itself. These smaller circles, or epicycles, were necessary to reconcile the observed motions of the planets with a geocentric model of the universe. The epicycles of the inferior planets Mercury and Venus were fixed to the orbit of the Sun and explained why those planets were never observed far from it in the sky. The epicycles of the superior planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn explained why those bodies were sometimes observed to move backward in their orbits, a phenomenon known as retrograde motion and explained in a heliocentric model by the differing orbital velocities of the Earth and the planet being observed. See illustration at Ptolemaic system.
A circle whose circumference rolls along the circumference of a fixed circle, thereby generating an epicycloid or a hypocycloid.