[syn: cycle, oscillation]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Oscillation \Os`cil*la"tion\, n. [L. oscillatio a swinging.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The act of oscillating; a swinging or moving backward and
forward, like a pendulum; vibration.
[1913 Webster]
2. Fluctuation; variation; change back and forth.
[1913 Webster]
His mind oscillated, undoubtedly; but the extreme
points of the oscillation were not very remote.
--Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
Axis of oscillation, Center of oscillation. See under
Axis, and Center.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
oscillation
n 1: the process of oscillating between states
2: (physics) a regular periodic variation in value about a mean
[syn: oscillation, vibration]
3: a single complete execution of a periodically repeated
phenomenon; "a year constitutes a cycle of the seasons" [syn:
cycle, oscillation]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
35 Moby Thesaurus words for "oscillation":
alternation, beat, cyclicalness, equivocation, fluctuation,
intermittence, intermittency, meter, pendulation, pendulum motion,
periodicalness, periodicity, piston motion, pulsation,
reappearance, recurrence, regular wave motion, reoccurrence,
return, rhythm, seasonality, seesawing, shifting, shilly-shally,
shilly-shallying, shuffling, teeter-tottering, teetering,
tottering, undulation, vacillation, variation, vicissitude,
wavering, wobbling