• (British) IPA: /ˈɛpɪˌsaɪkəl/

epicycle (plural epicycles)

1. (astronomy) A small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle; in Ptolemaic astronomy it was seen as the basis of revolution of the "seven planets", given a fixed central Earth.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.155:

     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.

2. (mathematics) Any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle, thus creating a hypocycloid or epicycloid.
3. (organic chemistry) A ring of atoms joining parts of an already cyclic compound

• French: épicycle
• German: Epizykel
• Italian: epiciclo
• Portuguese: epiciclo
• Russian: эпицикл
• Spanish: epiciclo