Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2002 / ia / Paper 3 / 2B / a / Solution

A group $G$ is a cyclic group if some element $g\in G$ generates it:For a finite cyclic group, the order of a group element of a generator equals the number of elements of the group.

An example of a finite abelian group that is not a cyclic group is the Klein four-group, realized aswith componentwise addition modulo two. Addition commutes, so this is an abelian group of four elements. Each of its three nonzero elements satisfies $g+g=0$, so the cyclic subgroup it generates has just two elements; the identity generates only itself. No element generates all four elements.