Noun: epicycle
| Singular | epicycle |
| Plural | epicycles |
Sample Sentences
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Is it not [Philosophie], that […] teacheth miserie, famine and sicknesse to laugh? Not by reason of some imaginarie Epicicles, but by naturall and palpable reasons. [, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.155]
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If two chronicles seemed contradictory, instead of trying to choose between them, a rationalization (epicycle) was devised to cover both. [1978, The Journal of the Siam Society, volumes 66-67, page 152:]
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Rather than solve the theoretical problem of how to produce a method of political ethics, the contractarian device introduces an unnecessary theoretical epicycle into what is otherwise a coherent account of social justice in particular and political morality in general. [1998, Paul Joseph Kelly, Impartiality, Neutrality and Justice: Re-reading Brian Barry’s Justice as Impartiality, page 12:]
Nouns inflected like epicycle
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Latin epicyclus, from Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος (epíkuklos), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”). The ad hoc complication sense is a generalization from the archetype supplied by the Ptolemaic astronomy sense.
Verbs referencing "epicycle"
Finnish Nouns
episykli.