Word.ws English Dictionary

oscillate

/ˈɑsɪleɪt/

oscillate verb: to swing back and forth, especially if with a regular rhythm.

Verb

oscillate (third-person singular simple present oscillates, present participle oscillating, simple past and past participle oscillated)

  1. (intransitive) To swing back and forth, especially if with a regular rhythm.
    • A pendulum oscillates slower as it gets longer.
    • By placing the 0.02μF capacitor on top of the whistle chip, the circuit oscillates at a lower frequency.2021 December, “Snap Circuits Classic”, in Snap Circuits, Elenco, page 27
  2. (intransitive) To vacillate between conflicting opinions, etc.
    • The mood for change oscillated from day to day.
  3. (intransitive) To vary above and below a mean value.

oscillate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

oscillate in Tamil

ஊசலாடு, தடுமாறு, அலைதல், அலைவுறு

oscillate in Urdu

لرزنا

oscillate in Malayalam

ആടുക, സ്പന്ദിക്കുക, ചാഞ്ചാടുക, കൃത്യമായി ചലിക്കുക

oscillate in Kannada

ತೊನೆ, ಜೋತಾಡು, ಜೋಲಿಡು, ಓಲಾಡು, ತೂಗಾಡು, ಜೂಗಾಡು
More languagesFewer languages
oscillate in Odia
ଝୁଲିବା jhulibā

Examples of oscillate in a sentence

  • Standing, oscillating and propagatory oscillating shocks are produced due to centrifugal barrier of the advective component.
  • When we oscillate between being for God and not for God we become unstable.
  • The tourist may also oscillate between both psychocentric and allocentric choices.

All 28 example sentences with oscillate

Synonyms of oscillate

Forms of oscillate

third-person singular presentoscillates
present participleoscillating
past participleoscillated
pastoscillated

Past tense of oscillate: oscillated

Origin of oscillate

First attested in 1726; borrowed from Latin ōscillātus, perfect passive participle of Latin ōscillō (“to swing”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ōscillum (“a swing”), usually identified with ōscillum (“a little face or mask hung on a tree that sways with the wind”), diminutive of ōs (“mouth, face”). See also osculate.

Words formed from oscillate

Questions about oscillate

What does oscillate mean?
Oscillate means to swing back and forth, especially if with a regular rhythm.
What is oscillate in Tamil?
Oscillate in Tamil is ஊசலாடு, தடுமாறு, அலைதல். See Oscillate meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is oscillate?
Oscillate is a verb.
How do you pronounce oscillate?
Oscillate is pronounced /ˈɑsɪleɪt/ (US).
What is the past tense of oscillate?
The past tense of oscillate is oscillated.

Words near oscillate in the dictionary

  1. Oschophoria
  2. Osci
  3. oscietra
  4. oscillancy
  5. oscillatary
  6. oscillate
  7. oscillated
  8. oscillates
  9. oscillating
  10. oscillating tool
  11. oscillating tools

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oscillate (page history and authors); oscillate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oscillate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oscillate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oscillate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଝୁଲିବା (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-oscillate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “oscillate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oscillate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.