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As an engineering undergrad, I refer to "cyclic motion". My friend, an arts student, uses the term "cyclical unemployment" (whatever that means) instead.

The only article I can find on the web about this didn't reach any conclusion except that words with -ic and -ical endings were normally the same, but occasionally the language has evolved to use them in different contexts (for example most people would see a difference between "magic" and "magical") [contrapunctus.net].

Is this divide entirely just convention in respective subjects?

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  • Both are acceptable as adjectives, but I would much prefer cyclical in both instances you quote.
    – WS2
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 12:11
  • @FumbleFingers, thanks! This seems to give a good answer.
    – Matt
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 12:17
  • Generally x-ic is a subset of x-ical : english.stackexchange.com/questions/171509/…
    – Blessed Geek
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 12:49
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    For this particular word, the use cases should often be regarded as technical language, and the conventions of the subject followed. In mathematics, anyone talking about "cyclical groups" rather than "cyclic groups" would receive funny looks; and it would be peculiar to use either term to describe a function, for which the correct adjective is periodic.
    – Charles Staats
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:07
  • @Matt: Yeah - although the actual question I cited was closed, I figured one of the duplinks within that would probably cover the general case well enough. I didn't check them all out myself, but if the first one worked for you that's good.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:37

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