wave
The word wave has many different meanings, but they all have to do with an undulating motion or shape. A wave that washes up on a beach has the same kind of back-and-forth movement as a crowd of baseball fans doing “the wave” in the stands.
Use the verb wave to describe a greeting that includes a hand motion, from the enthusiastic flapping wave of a little kid meeting his dad at the airport to the prim wave of a Queen acknowledging her subjects. In physics, when you talk about a sound wave, there is a similar kind of rise and fall. Two Old English root words of wave are wæfre, “wavering or restless,” and wagian, “to move to and fro.”
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(physics) a movement up and down or back and forth
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synonyms:
undulation-
types:
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gravitation wave, gravity wave
(physics) a wave that is hypothesized to propagate gravity and to travel at the speed of light
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sine wave
a wave whose waveform resembles a sine curve
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oscillation, vibration
(physics) a regular periodic variation in value about a mean
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fluctuation
a wave motion
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seiche
a wave on the surface of a lake or landlocked bay; caused by atmospheric or seismic disturbances
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standing wave, stationary wave
a wave (as a sound wave in a chamber or an electromagnetic wave in a transmission line) in which the ratio of its instantaneous amplitude at one point to that at any other point does not vary with time
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traveling wave, travelling wave
a wave in which the medium moves in the direction of propagation of the wave
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acoustic wave, sound wave
(acoustics) a wave that transmits sound
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wave form, wave shape, waveform
the shape of a wave illustrated graphically by plotting the values of the period quantity against time
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blast wave, shock wave
a region of high pressure travelling through a gas at a high velocity
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impulse, pulsation, pulse, pulsing
(electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients)
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flap, flapping, flutter, fluttering
the motion made by flapping up and down
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ripple
(electronics) an oscillation of small amplitude imposed on top of a steady value
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solitary wave, soliton, soliton wave
(physics) a quantum of energy or quasiparticle that can be propagated as a traveling wave in nonlinear systems and is neither preceded nor followed by another such disturbance; does not obey the superposition principle and does not dissipate
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air wave
a sound wave that is transmitted via air
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transient
(physics) a short-lived oscillation in a system caused by a sudden change of voltage or current or load
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sonic boom
an explosive sound caused by the shock wave of an airplane traveling faster than the speed of sound
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beat
a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations
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resonance
a vibration of large amplitude produced by a relatively small vibration near the same frequency of vibration as the natural frequency of the resonating system
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sympathetic vibration
(physics) vibration produced by resonance
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an undulating curve
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synonyms:
undulation-
types:
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sine curve, sinusoid
the curve of y=sin x
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type of:
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curve, curved shape
the trace of a point whose direction of motion changes
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sine curve, sinusoid
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one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water)
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synonyms:
moving ridge-
types:
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breaker, breakers, surf
waves breaking on the shore
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backwash, wake
the wave that spreads behind a boat as it moves forward
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swash
the movement or sound of water
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riffle, ripple, rippling, wavelet
a small wave on the surface of a liquid
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crestless wave, swell
the undulating movement of the surface of the open sea
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lift, rise
a wave that lifts the surface of the water or ground
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billow, surge
a large sea wave
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tidal wave
a wave resulting from the periodic flow of the tides that is caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun
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tidal wave
an unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide
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tsunami
a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption
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roll, roller, rolling wave
a long heavy sea wave as it advances towards the shore
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comber
a long curling sea wave
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white horse, whitecap
a wave that is blown by the wind so its crest is broken and appears white
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ground swell, heavy swell
a broad and deep undulation of the ocean
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the act of signaling by a movement of the hand
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move or swing back and forth
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move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
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signal with the hands or nod
“She
waved to her friends”“He
waved his hand hospitably”-
synonyms:
beckon-
type of:
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gesticulate, gesture, motion
show, express or direct through movement
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gesticulate, gesture, motion
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a hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
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types:
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finger wave
a wave made with the fingers
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perm, permanent, permanent wave
a series of waves in the hair made by applying heat and chemicals
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type of:
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coif, coiffure, hair style, hairdo, hairstyle
the arrangement of the hair (especially a woman’s hair)
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finger wave
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set waves in
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twist or roll into coils or ringlets
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a movement like that of a sudden occurrence or increase in a specified phenomenon
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something that rises rapidly
“a
wave of emotion swept over him”“there was a sudden
wave of buying before the market closed”“a
wave of conservatism in the country led by the hard right”-
type of:
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rise
a growth in strength or number or importance
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rise
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a persistent and widespread unusual weather condition (especially of unusual temperatures)
“a heat
wave”-
type of:
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atmospheric condition, conditions, weather, weather condition
the atmospheric conditions that comprise the state of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and wind and clouds and precipitation
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atmospheric condition, conditions, weather, weather condition