undulation means an instance or act of undulating.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, undulation ranks #2,340 of 14,361 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,517 of 14,440 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,592 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words, #2,737 of 14,445 for Most Beautiful Words.
Why “undulation” is a great word
A smooth, wave-like motion, form, or outline. From the Latin unda ("wave"), via Medieval Latin undulātiō, first attested in English in the 1660s. Unlike "oscillation" (which implies a regular, back-and-forth swing around a fixed point) or "ripple" (which suggests a small, superficial disturbance), undulation describes the sustained, sinuous travel of form. It is the slow, heaving breath of a field under a steady wind, the hypnotic advance of a serpent through grass, or the lingering contour of a lover's spine in rumpled sheets—a whisper of energy gliding through matter, the world's patient way of being both here and elsewhere at once.
Etymology
From undulate + -ion, or borrowed from Medieval Latin undulātiō; compare French ondulation.
noun
- An instance or act of undulating.“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.”
- A wavy appearance or outline; waviness.
- A tremulous tone produced by a peculiar pressure of the finger on a string.
- A wavelike curve; a smooth and regular rise and fall.
- A wavelike motion of the air; electromagnetic radiation.
- A feeling as if of an undulatory motion about the heart.
- The distinctive motion of the matter within an abscess on being pressed when it is ripe for opening.
Words closest in meaning
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