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

Policy uncertainty taking on a bigger role in the eyes of investors doesn’t mean that macroeconomic fundamentals — such as economic growth, business cycle and corporate earnings — no longer matter.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 1, 2026

Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Sløk examined stock prices going back to 1880 using a metric that gauges valuations over the long term while smoothing out business cycle volatility.

From Barron's • Jan. 16, 2026

The version popularized by Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller looks back at 10 years of earnings and adjusts them for inflation to cover an entire business cycle.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 4, 2025

Mark says that businesses like his can be loyal to workers and take long-term decisions, riding through the peaks and troughs of the business cycle.

From BBC • Nov. 21, 2024

The government   hopes to establish a new growth path that will be less vulnerable to   the external business cycle and will continue efforts to establish   Singapore as Southeast Asia's financial and high-tech hub.

From The 2005 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency