Meaning & use
breaking a cycle
Last updated
“breaking a cycle” is a form of “break a cycle”.
Meaning
phraseidiom
Stopping a repeated pattern of events, especially a bad or difficult one.
Grammar: This is the -ing form of the phrase 'break a cycle'. It often follows 'by' or is used as a noun phrase: breaking a cycle of poverty.
Patterns
- breaking a cycle of something
- break a cycle of poverty
- break the cycle
Education is one of the best ways of breaking a cycle of poverty.
The family moved to a new city, breaking a cycle of violence.
She talked about breaking the cycle of addiction in her community.
Word forms
| base form | break a cycle |
|---|---|
| third person singular | breaks a cycle |
| past tense | broke a cycle |
| past participle | broken a cycle |
| -ing form | breaking a cycle |
Common combinations
- break the cycle of poverty
- Better jobs can help break the cycle of poverty.
- break a cycle of violence
- The program aims to break a cycle of violence in the neighborhood.
- a way of breaking the cycle
- Mentoring is a way of breaking the cycle for young people.
- break the cycle once and for all
- They hoped to break the cycle once and for all.
Synonyms and how they differ
- end a pattern
- More general; it can refer to any repeated behavior, not only a harmful cycle.
- stop the cycle
- Very close in meaning, but 'stop' is more direct and less formal than 'break'.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: breaking a cycle or vicious circle?
breaking a cycle vs vicious circle
A vicious circle is a problem that makes itself worse; a cycle can be neutral or good, like a cycle of growth.
Practice
The charity's main goal is ______ of poverty in the region.
Choose one answer.
After 'is', we need the -ing form 'breaking the cycle' to act as the subject complement. 'Break the cycle' is the base form and does not fit after 'is'; the other options add a wrong preposition or use the wrong form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “breaking a cycle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.