English

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Noun

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vicious circle (plural vicious circles)

  1. A situation in which the response to one problem creates a chain of problems, each making it more difficult to solve the original one.
    • 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: London Transport in 1960”, in Trains Illustrated, page 656:
      Meanwhile street congestion grows worse and the vicious circle tightens of private motor-cars which impede L.T.E. buses in Central London and of exasperated bus travellers who therefore take to using their own cars.
  2. (logic) A fallacy in which the premise is used to prove a conclusion which is then used to prove the premise.

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