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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
oscillation
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Economists predict continuing oscillation of the Japanese yen.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A series of such oscillations, aided perhaps by marine erosion, is probably an important cause of island formation.
▪ Both heavy weights and light weights have slow and fast oscillations.
▪ In wave terms this corresponds to the direction in which the oscillations take place.
▪ Table 6. 1 shows these four combinations and the observed results on oscillation.
▪ The liquid helps to support the weight of the compass card, and also dampens oscillation.
▪ The tanks travelled up and down the incline with a freeboard of about nine inches and little water oscillation.
▪ Volcanologists now recognize these oscillations as a red flag that a volcano is entering a dangerous phase.
▪ When the string is short, the oscillation is always fast.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Oscillation

Oscillation \Os`cil*la"tion\, n. [L. oscillatio a swinging.]

  1. The act of oscillating; a swinging or moving backward and forward, like a pendulum; vibration.

  2. Fluctuation; variation; change back and forth.

    His mind oscillated, undoubtedly; but the extreme points of the oscillation were not very remote.
    --Macaulay.

    Axis of oscillation, Center of oscillation. See under Axis, and Center.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
oscillation

1650s, from French oscillation, from Latin oscillationem (nominative oscillatio), noun of action from past participle stem of oscillare "to swing," supposed to be from oscillum "little face," literally "little mouth," a mask of open-mouthed Bacchus hung up in vineyards as a charm (the sense evolution would be via the notion of "swing in the breeze"); from PIE *os- "mouth" (see oral).

Wiktionary
oscillation

n. 1 the act of oscillating or the state of being oscillated 2 a regular periodic fluctuation in value about some mean 3 a single such cycle 4 (context mathematics English) (context of a function English) defined for each point x in the domain of the function by infleft{mathrm{diam}(f(U))mid Umathrm{ is a neighborhood of }xright}, and describes the difference (possibly ∞) between the limit superior and limit inferior of the function near that point.

WordNet
oscillation
  1. n. the process of oscillating between states

  2. (physics) a regular periodic variation in value about a mean [syn: vibration]

  3. a single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon; "a year constitutes a cycle of the seasons" [syn: cycle]

Wikipedia
Oscillation

Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. The term vibration is precisely used to describe mechanical oscillation. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum and alternating current power.

Oscillations occur not only in mechanical systems but also in dynamic systems in virtually every area of science: for example the beating human heart, business cycles in economics, predator–prey population cycles in ecology, geothermal geysers in geology, vibrating strings in musical instruments, periodic firing of nerve cells in the brain, and the periodic swelling of Cepheid variable stars in astronomy.

Oscillation (mathematics)

In mathematics, the oscillation of a function or a sequence is a number that quantifies how much a sequence or function varies between its extreme values as it approaches infinity or a point. As is the case with limits there are several definitions that put the intuitive concept into a form suitable for a mathematical treatment: oscillation of a sequence of real numbers, oscillation of a real valued function at a point, and oscillation of a function on an interval (or open set).

Oscillation (cell signaling)

Oscillations are an important type of cell signaling characterized by the periodic change of the system in time. Oscillations can take place in a biological system in a multitude of ways. Positive feedback loops, on their own or in combination with negative feedback are a common feature of oscillating biological systems.

Oscillation (album)

Oscillation is the seventh and final studio album by the Norwegian black/ gothic metal band Trail of Tears. It was released on April 26, 2013 under Massacre Records. The album was recorded at Sound Suite Studio in Marseille, France between September and October 2011, in collaboration with producer Terje Refsnes.

Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow is listed as the band's drummer in the booklet, however, guitarrist Bjørn Erik Næss is credited with having performed the drums on this album.

Usage examples of "oscillation".

In this lame cage they were lowered into the excavation, a journey that took them through storage and maintenance areas, restricted sectors, down along porous shale and rock, past timber underpinnings and assemblies of masonry and steel that formed support for subtunnels and emergency access routes, the elevator suddenly dropping into open air, free of its shaft, cabling into the darkness of the inverted cycloid, air currents, oscillation, a bucketing descent through drainage showers and rubble-fall, the cage shaking so badly that Billy sought to convince himself there was a pattern to the vibrations and changes of speed, a hidden consistency, all gaps fillable, the organized drift of serial things passing to continuum.

This is the horary oscillations of the atmospheric pressure which, in some countries are so regular that the time of day may be ascertained by the height of the barometer.

Ships in nearing these islands and making the observations already pointed out, will greatly assist in determining the increase of oscillation proceeding westward from the nodal point of the two great European systems.

In those fleeting but recurrent moments of alien lightning he saw himself living, felt and saw inside his brain, and observed there the quickened oscillations of an inexpressibly complicated, delicate, and precious apparatus vibrating with multiple tasks, like a highly sensitive watchworks shielded behind glass because a grain of dust suffices to disturb it.

Now, just toward the 20th of February, the oscillations of the barometrical column began to preoccupy the young novice, who noted them several times a day with much care.

The wind kept in the condition of a stiff breeze all the time, and certain oscillations of the barometrical column indicated that it tended to freshen.

These oscillations were exactly like those described under Brassica and Dionaea, but they occurred only occasionally.

In some cases, as with the hypocotyls of Brassica, the leaves of Dionaea and the joints of the Gramineae, the circumnutating movement when viewed under the microscope is seen to consist of innumerable small oscillations.

When we interpret the arrangement of numbers found there on a nominalistic basis, as is done when the axis- and angle-relationships of crystals are reduced to a mere propinquity of the atoms distributed like a grid in space, or when the difference in angle of the position of the various colours in the spectrum is reduced to mere differences in frequency of the electromagnetic oscillations in a hypothetical ether - then we bar the way to the comprehension not only of number itself, as a quality among qualities, but also of all other qualities in nature.

Worse, he thought shiftable hodiechrons and temporal oscillation were entirely plausible, and when she told him she thought Max was having some kind of midlife crisis, Dr.

This upward movement differs from one of the great diurnal oscillations above described only by the position being permanent during the night and by its periodicity, as it always commences late in the evening.

He was listening to the subaudible rustlings, flutings and oscillations of the alien language and learning it rapidly.

La Place, and from the non-coincidence of these planes with the central plane of the vortex, must produce the same oscillation in the axis of the solar vortex, as the moon does in the terral vortex, but to what amount, observation can alone determine.

The leaflets of Averrhoa made a countless number of little oscillations when the temperature was high and the sun shining.

On a strip chart, it looks like a prominent oscillation of roughly 10 cycles a second.