ripple
UK/ˈɹɪp(ə)l/
ripple noun: a moving disturbance, or undulation, in the surface of a fluid.
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Noun (1)
ripple (plural ripples)
- A moving disturbance, or undulation, in the surface of a fluid.
- I dropped a small stone into the pond and watched the ripples spread.
- What seamen call the "ripples" are also very violent in the straits, the sea appearing to boil and foam and dance like the rapids below a cataract; vessels are swept about helplessly, and small ones are occasionally swamped in the finest weather and under the brightest skies.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 239
- One of a series of corrugations in flat surface.
- The ebbing tide had left ripples in the sand.
- A sound similar to that of undulating water.
- A style of ice cream in which flavors have been coarsely blended together.
- I enjoy fudge ripple ice cream, but I especially like to dig through the carton to get at the ripple part and eat only that.
- A small oscillation of an otherwise steady signal.
- A small spreading change, impact, or effect produced by a larger or more consequential action.
- Investments in research, deployment and scaling existing technologies are the initial ripples that will have to build to a groundswell of further action.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian
Verb (1)
ripple (third-person singular simple present ripples, present participle rippling, simple past and past participle rippled)
- To move like the undulating surface of a body of water; to undulate.
- Synonyms:
- ruffle
- To propagate like a moving wave.
- These problems were complicated by a foreign exchange crunch which rippled through the economy in 1961-1962, […]2008, Bradley Simpson, Economists with Guns, page 65
- To make a sound as of water running gently over a rough bottom, or the breaking of ripples on the shore.
- To shape into a series of ripples.
- To launch or unleash in rapid succession.
- Hearns' 'Mech rippled fifteen missiles. Austen watched the missiles go in. They smashed into a copse of trees, smashing the trunks aside.2019, Jason M. Hardy, Phaedra M. Weldon, Herbert A. Beas II, BattleTech: Weapons Free: BattleCorps Anthology, Volume 3
Verb (2)
ripple (third-person singular simple present ripples, present participle rippling, simple past and past participle rippled)
Noun (2)
ripple (plural ripples)
- An implement, with teeth like those of a comb, for removing the seeds and seed vessels from flax, broom corn, etc.
Verb (3)
ripple (third-person singular simple present ripples, present participle rippling, simple past and past participle rippled)
- To remove the seeds from (the stalks of flax, etc.), by means of a ripple.
Noun (3)
ripple (plural ripples)
- thripple, cart ladder (extension for cart or wagon)
Proper noun capitalized: Ripple
Ripple (countable and uncountable, plural Ripples)
- A village and civil parish in Dover district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR3450).
- A village and civil parish in Malvern Hills district, Worcestershire, England (OS grid ref SO8737).
- A surname.
ripple meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
ripple in Tamil
- அதிர்வலை, அலை அமைவு, சிற்றலை, குற்றலை
ripple in Urdu
- چھوٹی لہر, ہلکی لہر, لہر ڈالنا, شکن ڈالنا
ripple in Bengali
- ripple
- ঢেউ ḍheu
ripple in Malayalam
- ചെറുതിര, ഓളം
More languagesFewer languages
- ripple in Kannada
- ಅಲೆ ale
- ripple in Tagalog
- kilapsaw
- ripple in Vietnamese
- gợn, gợn sóng
Examples of ripple in a sentence
- The flag was hanging limp all day, until a flutter made it stand up and ripple for a few seconds.
- Defaults in America's mortgage lending businesses are causing a ripple effect through the major banks in other continents.
- An act of kindness is more like dropping a stone that creates expanding ripples, he says.
Synonyms of ripple
Forms of ripple
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ripples |
| alternative form | reeple |
| alternative form | riple |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ripples |
| present participle | rippling |
| past participle | rippled |
| past | rippled |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Ripples |
Origin of ripple
From an alteration of rimple.
From Middle English *ripelen, repulen, equivalent to rip + -le (frequentative suffix).
Compare German Low German Repel, Dutch repel, German Riffel, extended forms (with instrumental or diminutive -le) of Low German Repe (“ripple”), Dutch repe (“ripple”). Compare also Dutch repen, German reffen, Swedish repa (“to beat; ripple”). The verb is from Middle English ripplen, rypelen. Compare Low German repelen, Dutch repelen, German riffeln.
Words formed from ripple
Phrases with ripple
Words that rhyme with ripple
Questions about ripple
- What does ripple mean?
- Ripple means a moving disturbance, or undulation, in the surface of a fluid.
- What is ripple in Tamil?
- Ripple in Tamil is அதிர்வலை, அலை அமைவு, சிற்றலை. See Ripple meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is ripple?
- Ripple can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ripple?
- Ripple is pronounced /ˈɹɪp(ə)l/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ripple?
- The plural of ripple is ripples.
Words near ripple in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ripple (page history and authors); Ripple (page history and authors); ripple (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ripple (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ঢেউ (Bengali) (page history and authors); ripple (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಅಲೆ (Kannada) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ripple.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ripple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ripple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.