Definition of Epicycle

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

Generic synonyms: Circle
Derivative terms: Epicyclic, Epicyclical

Definition of Epicycle

1. n. A circle, whose center moves round in the circumference of a greater circle; or a small circle, whose center, being fixed in the deferent of a planet, is carried along with the deferent, and yet, by its own peculiar motion, carries the body of the planet fastened to it round its proper center.

Definition of Epicycle

1. Noun. (astronomy) A small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle; in Ptolemaic astronomy it was seen as the basis of revolution of the "seven planets", given a fixed central Earth. ¹

2. Noun. (mathematics) Any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle, thus creating a hypocycloid or epicycloid. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Epicycle

1. a circle that rolls on the circumference of another circle [n -S]

Medical Definition of Epicycle

1. 1. A circle, whose center moves round in the circumference of a greater circle; or a small circle, whose center, being fixed in the deferent of a planet, is carried along with the deferent, and yet, by its own peculiar motion, carries the body of the planet fastened to it round its proper center. "The schoolmen were like astronomers which did feign eccentries, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs." (Bacon) 2. A circle which rolls on the circumference of another circle, either externally or internally. Origin: L. Epicyclus, Gr.; upon + circle. See Cycle. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Epicycle

epicureans
epicurely
epicureous
epicures
epicurism
epicurisms
epicurize
epicurized
epicurizes
epicurizing
epicutaneous
epicutaneously
epicuticle
epicuticles
epicuticular
epicycle (current term)
epicycles
epicyclic
epicyclic gear
epicyclic gear train
epicyclic train
epicyclical
epicycloid
epicycloidal
epicycloids
epicystitis
epicyte
epicœnes
epideictic
epideictically

Literary usage of Epicycle

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art: Comprising the Definitions and by William Thomas Brande, George William Cox (1867)
"By means of these suppositions, and by assigning proper ratios (determined by observation) between the radius of the défèrent and the radius of the epicycle ..."

2. Library of Useful Knowledge (1834)
"There is another way, however, of explaining this irregularity, by the hypothesis of an epicycle. In this case the planet was supposed to move in a small ..."

3. Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval Europe, CA. 800-1500 by Bruce Eastwood, Gerd Grasshoff (2004)
"And in the same way by the epicyclic motion on the path NE the Sun finally reaches from H to Z just as the motion of its epicycle is seen to hasten through ..."

4. The Planetary System: A Study of Its Structure and Growth by Frank Bursley Taylor (1903)
"The forces of the epicycle and their relation to geocentric stability. It was pointed out above that the epicycle- corresponding theoretically to any given ..."

5. The Wittich Connection: Conflict and Priority in Late Sixteenth-century by Owen Gingerich, Robert S. Westman (1988)
"The SECOND MODE has a homocentric equal in size and speed to the eccentric, which carries a double epicycle in which the radius of the first is equal to the ..."

6. The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge by Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain), George Long (1843)
"The epicycle is, at any given instant, moving forward perpendicularly to the radius of the deferent with the velocity a, while the planet is moving ..."

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