Word.ws English Dictionary

Rossby wave

Rossby wave noun: a natural phenomenon in the atmospheres and oceans of planets, a kind of inertial wave that is largely due to planetary rotation.

Noun

Rossby wave (plural Rossby waves)

  1. A natural phenomenon in the atmospheres and oceans of planets, a kind of inertial wave that is largely due to planetary rotation.
    • The new paper explores the impacts on crop production when meanders in the jet stream (Rossby waves) become stuck. Stuck patterns cause extreme weather.2023 July 15, George Monbiot, “With our food systems on the verge of collapse, it’s the plutocrats v life on Earth”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    planetary wave

Synonyms of Rossby wave

Forms of Rossby wave

pluralRossby waves

Origin of Rossby wave

Named after Swedish-born American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Rossby (1898–1957), who first identified them.

Questions about Rossby wave

What does Rossby wave mean?
Rossby wave means a natural phenomenon in the atmospheres and oceans of planets, a kind of inertial wave that is largely due to planetary rotation.
What part of speech is Rossby wave?
Rossby wave is a noun.
What is the plural of Rossby wave?
The plural of Rossby wave is Rossby waves.

Words near Rossby wave in the dictionary

  1. Rossanos
  2. Rossarden
  3. Rossbridge
  4. Rossbrien
  5. Rossby
  6. Rossby wave
  7. Rossby waves
  8. Rosse
  9. rossed
  10. rossel
  11. Rossell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Rossby wave (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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Cite this entry: “Rossby wave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rossby_wave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.