life cycle
Biology. the continuous sequence of changes undergone by an organism from one primary form, as a gamete, to the development of the same form again.
a series of stages, as childhood and middle age, that characterize the course of existence of an individual, group, or culture.
any similar series of stages: the life cycle of a manufactured product.
Origin of life cycle
1Words Nearby life cycle
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use life cycle in a sentence
When compared across their entire life cycles, electric vehicles create 60 to 80 percent fewer greenhouse emissions than combustion-powered cars.
GM wants its cars to be fully electric by 2035. Here’s what that could mean for auto emissions. | Ula Chrobak | February 4, 2021 | Popular-ScienceSo given that we’ve already paid the upfront cost of this fossil fuel infrastructure, the economics don’t quite line up yet where we’re going to facilitate a rapid phase out of fossil fuel plants prior to the end of their life cycle.
Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more? | Ula Chrobak | January 28, 2021 | Popular-ScienceWith this in mind, we built Alula to support people, families, and friends through the entire life cycle of cancer, from diagnosis and treatment to recovery and bereavement.
Backed by Chelsea Clinton’s venture capital fund, this startup aims to make having cancer less lonely | Rachel King | January 11, 2021 | FortunePositioned now on both sides of an advertising transaction, we were ready to observe the life cycle of an ad click from end to end.
This tool lets you confuse Google’s ad network, and a test shows it works | Konstantin Kakaes | January 6, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewSo do Jenny Freestone’s elegant depictions of aquatic creatures, in which the life cycle of eggs, insects and amphibians is revealed as something rich and strange.
In the galleries: Up to his elbows in watery works and lustrous prints | Mark Jenkins | December 18, 2020 | Washington Post
“We have a detailed audit system that tracks the life cycle of an evidentiary item for record-keeping purposes,” she said.
Your Arrest Video Is Going Online. Who Will See It? | Jacob Siegel | September 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTResearchers have found that this protein is important in the life cycle of many types of cells, not only those in the eye.
Why Men May Be More Likely to Get Deadly Brain Cancer | Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD, Tej Azad | August 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI felt there were a lot of ways that I could spend the stub end of my life cycle that were more productive.
Early in a product's life cycle, you see enormous leaps in the quality of each successive generation.
WSJ: Apple Cuts iPhone Parts Orders on Disappointing Demand | Megan McArdle | January 15, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTStars and galaxies go through the life cycle of birth, growth, death, and replicate themselves.
True annuals are those plants which complete their entire life-cycle in one season.
The Practical Garden-Book | C. E. HunnThis division obtains on the involutionary side of the great life-cycle.
The Mystery of Space | Robert T. BrowneThere is some doubt as to the different stages in the life-cycle of this species.
Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa | Nelson AnnandaleThe introductory pages give the life cycle of a plant from seed to seed and many curious facts concerning curious plants.
Flower Guide | Chester A. ReedHas the duration and complexity of the life-cycle expanded or contracted since organisms first appeared on the earth?
British Dictionary definitions for life cycle
the series of changes occurring in an animal or plant between one development stage and the identical stage in the next generation
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for life cycle
The series of changes in the growth and development of an organism from its beginning as an independent life form to its mature state in which offspring are produced. In simple organisms, such as bacteria, the life cycle begins when an organism is produced by fission and ends when that organism in turn divides into two new ones. In organisms that reproduce sexually, the life cycle may be thought of as beginning with the fusion of reproductive cells to form a new organism. The cycle ends when that organism produces its own reproductive cells, which then begin the cycle again by undergoing fusion with other reproductive cells. The life cycles of plants, algae, and many protists often involve an alternation between a generation of organisms that reproduces sexually and another that reproduces asexually. See more at alternation of generations.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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