clock cycle.

One complete period of the regular timing signal used to coordinate a digital circuit or processor.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a processor clock cycle
• cycles per instruction
• a clock-cycle delay

On the page

The fault appeared only when the signal arrived one clock cycle late.

A single instruction could occupy several clock cycles while other work continued in parallel.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular clock cycle; plural clock cycles. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.