From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlife cycleˈlife ˌcycle noun [countable] LIFEall the different levels of development that an animal or plant goes through during its life
Examples from the Corpus
life cycle• Like most butterflies they share the same basic life cycle.• It is an obligate parasite with a complex life cycle.• The need is to consider the economic life cycle of each alternative in order to determine the optimal replacement.• With warming temperatures, the life cycle speeds up.• This balance changes throughout the life cycle.• The older drugs also curbed replication, but at another point in the virus' life cycle. 