business cycle

American  

noun

1. a recurrent fluctuation in the total business activity of a country.

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business cycle British  

noun

1. Also called: trade cycle.  the recurrent fluctuation between boom and depression in the economic activity of a capitalist country

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business cycle Cultural  

1. A period during which business activity reaches a low point, recovers, expands, reaches a high point, decreases to a new low point, and so on.

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Etymology

Origin of business cycle

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

business cycle

“The business cycle would be well served if you move early and have to move less, than move later and have to move more,” she said.

From MarketWatch ● May 30, 2026

For Wilson, this reinforces his conviction that the business cycle is ultimately a more important arbiter of market direction than a policy agenda.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026

For investors, healthcare stocks are beneficiaries of a trend that doesn’t have much to do with the business cycle, that monetary policy can’t slow, and that demographics won’t reverse.

From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026

While monetary policy is able to address cyclical conditions like a downturn in the business cycle, it cannot address the structural factors that determine rates of employment in the long term, he added.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026

The enterprise of a modern community, as a whole, "general business," moves along, in a wavelike manner, going through a somewhat regular series of changes that is called a business cycle.

From Modern Economic Problems Economics Volume II by Fetter, Frank Albert