  Cyclic words are equivalence classes of cyclic permutations of ordinary
words. When a group is given by a rewriting relation, a rewriting system on
cyclic words is induced, which is used to construct algorithms to find minimal
length elements of conjugacy classes in the group. These techniques are applied
to the universal groups of Stallings pregroups and in particular to free
products with amalgamation, HNN-extensions and virtually free groups, to yield
simple and intuitive algorithms and proofs of conjugacy criteria.
