The definition and composition of the pressure drop over a tangential inlet, reverse flow cyclone have been analyzed. It is assumed that two factors mainly contribute to the pressure drop, i.e., the local loss and the loss along the distance. The former includes the expansion loss at the cyclone inlet and the contraction loss at the entrance of the outlet tube (or vortex finder). The latter consists of the swirling loss resulting from friction at the cyclone walls and the dissipation of gas dynamic energy in the outlet tube. By use of the measured results of the flow field in cyclones, the calculation methods for each loss have been developed. And a universal model to predict the cyclone pressure drop is thus obtained simply by summing each loss. A detailed comparison between the calculated and experimental results shows that this accurate model is suitable either for pure or for dust laden gases at normal or high temperatures and can meet the requirement of most cyclone designs.