life cycle
nounDefinition of life cycle
1
: the series of stages in form and functional activity through which an organism passes between successive recurrences of a specified primary stage
3
: a series of stages through which something (such as an individual, culture, or manufactured product) passes during its lifetime
Examples of life cycle in a Sentence
the life cycle of a shark
Recent Examples on the Web
What the impact is on their life cycle may be is hard to say and will require more research. — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, "Eating Even One Piece of Plastic Has Health Consequences for Baby Seabirds," 5 Aug. 2019 That obscurity extends to solid scientific knowledge about its life cycle in the Gulf, Drymon said. — al, "Hollie’s tarpon: Fish caught by Alabama woman going far," 2 Aug. 2019 The moths wandering about the shoebox seemed set free, able to carry out their life cycle. — Vanessa Hua, SFChronicle.com, "The wonder of silkworms, past and present," 5 July 2019 The findings also suggest school groups and hobbyists who raise monarchs to bolster the species’s population may want to source them locally and raise them outdoors for their entire life cycle. — Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, "Monarch butterflies raised in captivity don’t migrate," 24 June 2019 The Ponderosa Pine relies on fire as part of its life cycle in order to propagate, and the forest naturally sees wildfires every 40 to 70 years. — Bree Burkitt, azcentral, "Crews 'cautiously optimistic' as Museum Fire continues to burn," 25 July 2019 The moths wandering about the shoebox seemed set free, able to carry out their life cycle. — Vanessa Hua, SFChronicle.com, "The wonder of silkworms, past and present," 5 July 2019 At the same time, the blowdown has helped regenerate the forest as part of its long-term natural life cycle. — Brooks Johnson, Twin Cities, "20 years later, effects of massive Boundary Waters windstorm still felt," 3 July 2019 His personal collection tells us a lot about fandom—and about the life cycles of music ephemera. — Longreads, "The Top 5 Longreads of the Week," 27 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'life cycle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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