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

Flagging a few more reasons investors should be pulling some value names into their portfolios, she said BofA’s regime indicator shows the business cycle remains in the expansionary midcycle for a fourth straight month.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

“It has had a very successful run, a high rate of growth, it’s not as subject to the fluctuations of the business cycle as maybe other things are.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Executives can’t control the business cycle or share prices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

Not any more: Banks and small stocks, which are both sensitive to the state of the business cycle, are up much more than big tech’s “Magnificent Seven” this year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

I should expect this sort of thing to happen normally, and not infrequently, and I should expect gold to come in and go out many times in the course of a business cycle.

From The Value of Money by Benjamin M. Anderson