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In coding theory, a cyclic code is a block code, where the circular shifts of each codeword gives another word that belongs to the code. They are error-correcting codes that have algebraic properties that are convenient for efficient error detection and correction.

If 00010111 is a valid codeword, applying a right circular shift gives the string 10001011. If the code is cyclic, then 10001011 is again a valid codeword. In general, applying a right circular shift moves the least significant bit (LSB) to the leftmost position, so that it becomes the most significant bit (MSB); the other positions are shifted by 1 to the right.