undulation

English

Etymology

undulate +‎ -ion, or borrowed from Medieval Latin undulātiō; compare French ondulation.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

undulation (countable and uncountable, plural undulations)

Undulating cloud cover

1. An instance or act of undulating.
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 77:

     But the next undulation would raise us, showing the island ablaze in the sunlight, an emerald of dazzling beauty resting lightly on the bosom of the sea.

2. A wavy appearance or outline; waviness.
3. (music) A tremulous tone produced by a peculiar pressure of the finger on a string.
4. A wavelike curve; a smooth and regular rise and fall.
5. A wavelike motion of the air; electromagnetic radiation.
6. (medicine, dated) A feeling as if of an undulatory motion about the heart.
7. (medicine, dated) The distinctive motion of the matter within an abscess on being pressed when it is ripe for opening.

Derived terms

• undulationist

Translations

instance or act

• Bulgarian: вълнение (bg) n (vǎlnenie)
• Finnish: aaltoilu (fi)
• Ottoman Turkish: طالغه (dalga), موج (mevc)
• Polish: zafalowanie n
• Romanian: ondulație (ro) f

a tremulous tone produced by a peculiar pressure of the finger on a string

• Finnish: aaltomaisuus

appearance or outline

• Bulgarian: вълнистост f (vǎlnistost)
• Ottoman Turkish: طالغه (dalga), موج (mevc)
• Polish: falistość (pl) f
• Russian: волнистость (ru) f (volnistostʹ)
• Swedish: vågformighet c

a wavelike curve; a smooth and regular rise and fall

• Finnish: aaltomaisuus
• Maori: rainga
• Russian: волнистость (ru) f (volnistostʹ), неро́вность (ru) f (neróvnostʹ) поверхности (ru) f (poverxnosti)
• Swedish: vågformighet c

wavelike motion

• Bulgarian: вълнообразно движение (vǎlnoobrazno dviženie)
• Finnish: aaltoilu (fi)
• Ottoman Turkish: طالغه (dalga), موج (mevc)
• Polish: falowanie (pl) n
• Slovene: valovanje n
• Swedish: vågrörelse (sv) c, böljegång c, vågsvall n

References

• “undulation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.