life-cycle

Noun

life cycle (plural life cycles)

1. The course of stages through which an organism passes from fertilized zygote until maturity, reproduction, and death.
   • Meronym: life forms

   Synonyms:

   biological life

2. (broadly) The useful life of a product or system; the developmental history of an individual or group in society.
   • Since it began operating in 1950, Sellafield has had different duties. First it manufactured plutonium for nuclear weapons. Then it generated electricity for the National Grid, until 2003. It also carried out years of fuel reprocessing: extracting uranium and plutonium from nuclear fuel rods after...2022 December 15, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2023